Travels: October 2017

Day 8: Guide Training Camp and Village People

“Minor things can become great moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time.” Margot Fonteyn

So far we have not seen any African villages or talked to local people other than the guides. My prior experience working in Sierra Leone had impressed on me the warmth and gentleness of African people. While our guides helped us get an idea of the local culture and about wildlife, I am eager to meet and talk with more Tanzanians. I asked the lodge manager if we could visit a village and while this is not a standard offering she was willing to set this up. While learning about the people and their culture is always the most interesting part of a trip for me, I am sensitive about how people will react to me observing them, or asking to take their pictures.

This trip was an hour long drive going outside of the park. Along the way we stopped at an area that had fantastic hippos and birds.
So just in case you have forgotten how amazing these visions are I will include a few pictures.

African Eagle

Grey Heron and Yellow-billed Egret

Hamerkop

Yellow-billed Stork

Ostrich ( a rare sighting)

Saddle-billed Stork

Reaching Tungamalenga
Isaac our Tanzanian guide, who has grandchildren and friends in a nearby village took us to Tungamalenga, a non-tourist local village.

A family farm home

First we visit a Guide Training Camp where we had breakfast with the director of the camp. This event turned out to be my favorite experience because we could talk to the young students (ages 14 to 20 +) about their training, career dreams and efforts to prevent animal poaching and hunting in this community.

Breakfast with Program Director

The first person I talked to thanked me for taking the time to come and talk with them and for being interested in his country. He said he had been trained to be a teacher but was unable to get a job so was volunteering at this guide camp to get experience.

He taught me how greetings were done in his local tribe by kissing my hand. I showed him how this was done in New Zealand by the Maori tribe as well as how we Canadian-Americans traditionally do this in our home, versus the French approach. We had a rather intimate discussion about touch and how that is carried out in family life.

Isaac (our guide), Camp director, Driver

We learned from the camp director about how they are helping villagers to stop killing elephants or leopards that destroy their cattle and gardens with both bee hive fences and video technology. Elephants have sensitive skin, particularly behind the ears and inside the trunk, and are afraid of bees. Therefore, the villages put up bee fences around their crops to keep out elephants. Moreover, they end up being able to sell raw honey for profit in addition to keeping out the elephants. Another strategy they use is to put video cameras around their property. These videos count the number of animals going by alive beside their farm fences. The villager who has the most animals on his video is rewarded with a prize not only for himself but for his village. Also the videos can help identify any poachers who come by to kill elephants for their tusks. The guide director believes this educational strategy is working to help the elephant population to recover as well as the use of stricter measures against corruption and poaching.

The students seemed eager to try out their English with us. Both men and women were incredibly friendly and affectionate. This is just as I remembered my time working in Sierra Leone. I loved seeing all the brilliant colored fabric worn by the women. I believe Marie and I could have spent the entire day here.

Reluctantly we leave these people and are encouraged to move on to see the village and its primary school. There we are greeted by 60-70 young children ages 4-6 years who eagerly surrounded us with joy and excitement. We talked to the teacher who said she had 99 preschool children in her classroom and was the only teacher! The children sang to us, were eager to be held by us and wanted to touch us. They seemed intrigued and looked at us as if we were unusual animals to be stared at. They looked nourished and well fed but I wondered about their nutritional health, medical care as well as their education possibilities. I had fantasies of coming back here to teach or be a nurse again.

Trying to take a picture which they loved to see

Teachers, our guide Isaac and grandchild

Afterwards we go to the market and observe a bit of village life. I ask before taking any pictures and they seem pleased to have a picture taken. Perhaps there haven't been too many tourists here.