A Place More Mountainous than Illinois

It has been awhile since I have blogged because there hasn’t been that much time to do it. I said that I would be reporting on Arusha, but only having had four full days in Arusha up until this point and I would like to have more information to share.

Briefly, I will say that of I thought I had trouble getting around at school or in Chicago, then I was mistaken. Arusha is more difficult because you are operating through a language barrier, keep an eye out for pick-pocketing, tell hagglers you don’t want to buy your things at the same time you are trying to figure out how to get to where you want to go. Then there are dala dalas, an assortment of taxis that are safe and not safe and bargaining which I still haven’t mastered.

We spent the second week of our time in Mazumbai Forest Reserve in the Usambara Mountains. It was beautiful up there, we camped out on the lawn of a Swiss Chalet, got to shower often, and we got to hike up the mountain and study trees for a few days which was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Illinois does not have mountains like them, I was surprised by the incline, mildly taken over by the elevation but loved every minute of it.

Examples of assignments of Masumbai:

-greet the forest separately and be back when the sun is above your head (and the last day, say goodbye to the forest)
- study the forest stratification horizontally and vertically by measuring DBH, canopy cover, identifying tree types
-going into the villages to ask the locals about ethnobotany, agroeconomy, firewood, and gender relations
-read readings
-optional: Baba Jack boot camp

Other activities:

-Showering
-eating mangoes
-playing cards, mafia, and soccer
-playing celebrity and chatting
-studying Swahili and solving riddles
-going on walks
If I’m making it sound less exciting than it was, the area in incredible and so was the week. Furthermore, the area is being conserved very well with only a few people, regardless of the pressure from local villages. It was a great place to spend a week and I am even considering returning there for my independent study project.