Academic News
The past couple of weeks at the Center for Wildlife Management Studies in Tanzania have provided the students with many rewarding experiences. The first community service project of the semester involved tree-planting at the local primary school, which was a great success. We have taken two trips to Tarangire National Park where students observed many wildlife species, including elephants, lions, leopards, warthogs and giraffes. The students also attended market day in the nearby town of Karatu. Here the students were able to practice their Swahili as well as their bargaining skills. As part of the cultural course, students visited a Maasai cultural center where they observed Maasai songs and dances. The visit sparked an interesting discussion on cultural tourism in East Africa. Finally, the staff are hard at work preparing for the upcoming expedition to Serengeti National Park. We will be leaving on Friday, March 14th for the five day expedition and are all extremely excited!
- Katie Grasty, Student Affairs Manager

Student Reflections
Last week we went to the once-a-month market day in Karatu, where local people come from all around. I was expecting the market would be an organized setup of tables and booths in tidy rows, but this was definitely not the case. The market sprawled across an expanse of bare dirt and patchy grass. Most of the vendors had their goods laid out on the ground or on tarps. Women selling cloth stood among piles of bright colored fabric up to their knees. There were all kinds of useful things for sale: cloth, rope, shoes, clothes, pottery, cookware, hardware, machetes, meat, produce, and tons of livestock. There were cows and goats and sheep milling around with no clear system of being bought and sold.

There were also the ever-present hawkers selling jewelry and carvings of animals. Clearly our group stood out from the crowd, so we were often hailed by these vendors. “I give you good price. Two for five. Very good price.” Our disinterest brought the prices down quickly. “Three for five. Okay, four for five. Just for you.” Eventually some people settled for the six-for-five deal. The vendors continued to flock around us as we were leaving, trying to make last-minute sales through the windows of the land cruisers.
- Molly Keogh, University of Oregon

Today was our second trip to Tarangire National Park, our third game drive, and the second time we were counting large mammals and documenting their habitats. The thrill of the first sighting of some of these animals had worn off. We often drove by herds of impala or troupes of olive baboons, if we could count them without stopping. Even giraffe and elephants were standard animals to see, although they still had the ability to inspire. However, the anticipation of possibly sighting some of the more rare, elusive animals had been only been building.

This was why when Andrew, our Swahili teacher, told us that our driver had spotted a leopard, my first reaction was skepticism. We'd been making jokes about seeing lions, cheetahs, leopards and hyenas, but none of us really expected to encounter one. But this time, about 65 meters away was a real leopard lying on the branch of an acacia tree. It took me a while to locate it even with binoculars, and it is still beyond me how our driver saw it when all six of us students could barely find it once we had stopped.

The similarities in posture and behavior to our common housecats were so apparent as we continued to watch the leopard relax in the tree; sometimes licking its paws, yawning, or even lowering its head and lazily draping its paw over the branch. Yet to make a comparison like that seems unbearably disrespectful. I had to erase all my ideas of what a cat looks like to fully appreciate what I was seeing. We watched the leopard for probably half an hour, exclaiming whenever it twitched its tail or turned its head, until it finally got up and walked down the back side of the tree, with our eyes glued to its every move, and snapping pictures the whole time.
- Charlotte Ballantine, Smith College

Africa is amazing! I had no idea how eye-opening an experience this would be, and I have only been here for one month so far. This is my first major trip out of the States. It is like entering into a new world that you had heard about, but without exposure, lacked the ability to really grasp. What have we been doing? So much, but the following are some highlights.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a local school that was just a hop-skip away and planted trees with some of the watoto (children). Afterwards, a bunch of us joined into this game/dance activity. I was not completely sure what was going on but I shook my hips anyway!

We had an assignment where we had to interview tourists, which was interesting to say the least. My group spent our time at this swank hotel, so that ended up being pretty fun.

Today was a glorious day. We went to Tarangire National Park for the second time in the last couple of weeks. There were massive herds of elephants everywhere. My group actually caught a glimpse of a caracal hidden in the grass. Even though we were not able to see him well, it made my day because I am sort of a cat person. We also saw about six bat-eared foxes curdled up under a shrub, and they were adorable.

On Friday we are leaving for Serengeti so I am completely and utterly stoked for that. We are going to be staying there for five days. I do not see how it can be anything but amazing!
- Sara Rex, Mercyhurst College