February 15: We
loaded the bus early to head off to Tanzania. The drive took about 7 hours,
spending about an hour at the boarder getting cleared for departure/arrival
into the respective countries. Immediately after crossing the border into
Tanzania we were met with large mountains topped with rocky cliffs, clouds
hovering above them. We arrived at Dorobo Tours in the afternoon where we met
our guides for the week: “Mama” Maggie, Killerai, and Zenani. We had a quick
lunch before heading back on the road in the Range Rovers with our guides. I
rode with Maggie, who told us to call her “Mama” and quickly adopted us as her
children. She let us know that if we needed to stop to use the bathroom, we
should say, “I need to check the tire.” We stopped in a very small but very
busy town to get some gas yet the first gas station was out of gas. Luckily,
the next station had enough to fill us up. At another stop we bought items to
give to the Hadzabe in exchange for hosting us for the week. The Hadzabe do not really use money, so Dorobo compensates them with useful items such as salt
and tobacco. Dorobo also puts a portion of their profits into different
accounts for the Hadzabe that help pay for school fees and to help them secure their
land rights. The tobacco was packaged in newspaper, rolled into cones about 4
inches long. We arrived at our campsite before sundown and spent an hour or so
at the nearby waterfall. We all jumped around and relaxed on the huge boulders
that rested at the base of the waterfall, enjoying the mist and cool air
after a long day of traveling.
"Mama" Maggie and some Hadzabe
the waterfall
Sam and me having dinner at the campsite
February 16: Woke
early and embarked on a 2-hour hike up the nearby ridge. Although the distance
wasn’t too far, the hike was quite steep and quickly opened up to a gorgeous
view of the many ridges and valleys of the area. The rolling green hills were
terraced with a handful of small farms, and in the valley we could see a large
grid of farms neighboring a large lake. At the top of the ridge we loaded into
the cars that our guides had driven up to meet us in. We began to drive again
to our next campsite, and stopped along the way to rest on the roadside and
learn about Tanzanian history. During our discussion I was being harassed by
several bees (I had thought they were just Tsetse flies at the time) and eventually got stung right on the eyelid. It hurt quite a bit, especially when Killerai had to use tweezers to remove the stinger. Once again we loaded the cars and made our way
up the ridge into Hazdabe territory. We drove for about an hour into the bush,
on an extremely bumpy dirt road that felt more like a rodeo than a car ride. At
one point, Maggie was trying to drive us up a very steep and rocky section of the
road when the car got stuck after trying several times to get up the hill.
Suddenly, she turned off the car and said, “I sense that someone is near.” The
other passengers and I were very confused, and for a second I was a bit
nervous, unsure what kind of person or animal that she felt was in our
presence. A few seconds later I saw the figure of a Hazda man in the distance
walking towards us through the bush. I have no idea how Maggie was able to tell
that he was near. The man brought two others and helped us get the car up the
hill, moving different rocks and directing us.
the girls
overlooking the valley
Sam, Alex and me
February 17: After
breakfast we walked about 30 minutes through the woods to the Hadzabe
community. There are about 6 Hazda men staying at our camp with us, sleeping
underneath the stars on one of the rocks, who led us to their home. Upon
arriving at their community, we spent the first few minutes shaking hands with
each of the 30 people there and greeting them “Mtana.” The women brought us
into their homes, and using a translator, we were able to ask them about their
homes and daily activities. Their semi-permanent houses are made of wooden
poles and straw and are usually moved about once a year to areas with better
food sources. The Hadza women spend their days gathering foods such as roots
and berries and the men hunt using bows and arrows. Our home had a small bed,
shared by 3 people, a small table, and a fire pit in the center of the hut.
Most homes used animal skins on the ground as a bed. After spending some time
in their village, with about 6 homes in all, we followed some of the men to
harvest honey. The men seemed to know instinctively where the beehives were in
random trees in the bush. Using their axes they cut open the trees and pulled
out the honeycomb, ignoring the bees stinging their bodies. Later we dug for roots with the
Hadza women, who just used sharpened sticks to break the ground rather than a
shovel or another tool. A Hadza man made a fire rubbing two sticks together,
which we used to roast the roots over as an afternoon snack. In the late
afternoon we sat with the Hadza men and made arrows with them. We found straight
tree branches removed the bark and then used knives to shape them into arrows.
The arrows had surprisingly sharp points and bird feathers were used for the end of the arrows. Their
bows are also made from wood, with animal tendons used for the bow string.
digging for roots
honey
making a fire
making arrows
February 18: This
morning we packed up camp before taking off on our walk for the day. Sean said
that all I needed to write in my journal for the day is, “Today, we walked.” We
walked down the ridge from our campsite and across the valley and up another
ridge to our next campsite, about a 12km day. Most of the hike was flat as we
crossed the valley, but with little vegetation we were exposed to the sun for a
majority of the walk. It had rained the night before, so many spots along the
walk were extremely muddy. We were all covered in mud knees down by the end of
the day. Finally we arrived at our next campsite and relaxed for a few hours.
We climbed the huge rock at our campsite that overlooked the valley we had just
crossed and did yoga and some journaling. Later we did some archery practice
with the Hadza, aiming at a cardboard box. The bows were very hard to pull
back, but I was able to get a few arrows relatively close to the target. After
we had practiced for a while, the Hadza men had an archery competition. It was
so fun to watch them shoot, their shots were extremely fast and accurate. One
of the eldest men won after several rounds, and Kate gave him a crown that she
had made from flowers. He was wearing a USA Olympic jacket, so his victory and
the crown were very fitting.
possible lion track (hyena more probable)
Palancho
the winner!
the target
climbing up a Baobob tree
February 19: Woke
up today at 5:45am to get prepared for our day of hunting that began at 7:00am.
Alex, Lacy and I followed two Hadza men, both named Palancho, into the bush for
our hunting mission. Neither of the Palanchos spoke any English and hardly any
Swahili, so we had very little verbal communication with them throughout the
day. The first 30 minutes of the expedition was us girls practically chasing
after our guides as they speed walked down small hunting paths. It felt like an
obstacle course avoiding thorny vegetation of various heights. One second you’d
be concentrating on your shins not getting sliced and then you’d get hit in the
face. Or the person in front of you may get a thorny branch stuck on their
backpack and then it would hit you in the arm. It was a challenge for us, but
Palancho2 had no trouble navigating the terrain in their sandals. Within
the first 2 hours our guides were able to kill a Hyrax, a small rodent-looking mammal that is
actually closely related to the elephant. Our guides killed the Hyrax while us
girls were waiting near a rock outcrop. They had been chasing after the Hyrax,
and it ran towards where we were sitting, turned the other way back into the
rocks and then our guides were able to hit it twice with their arrows. For the
rest of our hunting expedition we walked around the bush, thankfully a little
slower than our original pace, every once and a while scaling a high rock
outcrop to look over the landscape for animals. Several times our guides would
leave us being as they went to hunt for 10-20 minutes, but were never
successful. At one point, our two guides started chasing after an animal, which
we later learned was a Leopard. I was upset to have not seen the Leopard but
excited that there was one in our presence. We returned back to camp around 1,
after about 6 hours of hunting. Our group was the only successful group, not
including one other group that killed and ate a dove in the bush. It was a
long, tiring day, but all worth it to see how the Hazda are able to
successfully hunt to provide for the community. The Hazdabe live communally,
and all food and other resources are shared evenly amongst the community
members. After returning to camp the Hazda men cooked the Hyrax over the fire,
first removing the guts and then throwing the rest of the body onto the fire,
fur and all. After the Hyrax was pretty charred, they bit off and ate the feet,
and then cut off the head, which was put back on the fire. We got to try some
of the liver and a piece of meat, both that didn’t taste too bad but not too
good either. Eventually they threw another body part on the fire, and at first
we couldn’t figure out what it was, but later realized that the Hyrax had been
pregnant and that they were cooking the fetuses of twins. To our sadness these
were later consumed by the Hazdabe.
After our afternoon snack of the Hyrax, we joined the
Hadzabe for a question and answer session, facilitated by our guides that
translated for us as we asked about land loss, tourism and education, among
other topics. After dinner the Hadzabe joined us around the fire for a night of
singing and dancing. At first the Hadza danced on their own, creating music
with their voices and stomping their feet to the beat, creating a dusty and smoking
dance floor next to the fire. After a few dances we were encouraged to join,
making fools of ourselves mimicking their complicated footwork, thoroughly enjoying
every minute of it. Later we sang them some songs in English and taught them
the Cotton Eyed Joe dance.
Palancho with the Hyrax
Medium-rare Hyrax
charred Hyrax
February 20: Woke
early to a soaked tent after a long night of pouring rain and some exciting
lightening. We packed up camp and hit the road back to Arusha, our first leg of
our journey back to Kenya. The dirt roads were very muddy after all the rain,
and our caravan of 4 Range Rovers was constantly getting stuck in the mud. Once
we were stuck for an hour, and once for over 2 hours, before all 4 vehicles
were able to get out of the mud. At one point we reached a bridge that was
heavily flooded, and had to back track almost to our starting point to avoid
the water. Eventually we made it back to the home base, where we had a final
night of camping.
stuck in the mud
February 21: Today
we met with one of the Dorobo Tour founders, Dauti, who talked to us about Dorobo’s
efforts to help the Hadzabe people secure their land and to attend school. He
told us about his relationship with the Hadzabe, which he has maintained
throughout his life as he has lived/worked in Tanzania. Follow this link to
learn more about Dorobo’s mission: http://www.dorobofund.org/our-vision/
