Tanzania at last!

Tanzania at last! After a long flight from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro Airport and a crazy drive in the dark to Arusha, I finally arrived in Tanzania. I was so excited and nervous! I had spent the last nine months almost continually thinking about Tanzania whether I was doing background research, applying for grants to go there, ordering supplies, etc, but I had to wait until morning until I could actually see anything. Arusha is a fairly large city and was our base to gather supplies before we headed out to Olduvai Gorge.

I must admit when I first arrived in Tanzania, I was a little overwhelmed. I had spent so much time preparing for the research aspect of my trip and very little time thinking about what it might be like there. The poverty was shocking at times, but everyone is very friendly. Sometimes a little too friendly... I was a magnet for anyone trying to sell something.  

I didn't take too many pictures at the beginning of my trip because the locals (understandably) don't like strange giant white girls taking pictures of them while they go about their daily business, so I respected their privacy. However, I did snap this shot in the late afternoon. This is a view from my hotel room looking towards Mt. Meru.

While I got to see a lot of amazing things in Tanzania, my main reason for going was to collect samples for my master's research project, and therefore I spent most of my days digging trenches and describing the sediment. Not very exciting to most people...so instead of recounting my adventures day to day like I did for Europe, I'm going to just tell stories about what it was like. I have more pictures than I could ever post on here, and they don't quite capture Tanzania anyways. I continue to get better with my camera, but some things I still cannot manage to convey with my pictures, so I'll do my best to describe it.