In the park, a lot of time was spent looking and the villagers clicking away (with the camera's we had provided them) at lions and giraffes, the elephants and their calves. The bulls trying to show their machoism by trumpeting and mock charging us and our poor landy sometimes petrified refused to start when we needed her most to react!
like the massive bull below, too close for comfort!
In some groups, the villagers were all very chattery and filled to the brim with excitement and wonder and other days the groups were shy and reserved. The ones that really tested my patience were the groups where every mama had one baby in tow. And by baby i mean infant - the age when they cry for anything and everything and you must use your intelligence and figure out as soon as possible what the baby wants, unless you prefer going deaf and/or insane and thereby eliminating such issues from your life forever. And sometimes they pooped and the mama's would have to wait until we got to a spot where they could alight and change the baby's clothes. Until then the rover would be intoxicated with the lingering smell of baby poop. Such accidents happened rarely, but they did. And I would give Rowland the look and then stick my head out of the window and try and fool myself into smelling the beautiful aroma of the grass and dust.
The most vivid memories for me are the faces of the villagers when we'd meet the first thing in the morning. The look of anticipation on their faces, the excitement for the day ahead and the smiles, like a child on its way to a toy store, or starting a day of fun and frolic….a picnic! They would usually be dressed in their best clothes, the men in their choicest shirts and pants, the young boys in their most impressionable hip-hopish avatars and the women is their newest kangas and kitenges with heels and sometimes make up. It really made me hope that I could show them things they probably had never seen before, or plant a seed of interest that would grow into a seedling of questions and would be parched thirsty to know more, to discover, to understand. I mean this park was more theirs than anybody elses. So was everything that it contained. And without interest, there can be no way of understanding and without understanding there would be conflict and they would loose what was theirs. I mean it was already happening; conflict with the authorities, with the wildlife, with their own interests.
I remember hearing about a lion that was killed in Tungamalenga village just a few days before i arrived. He was killing livestock and the farmer had to put an end to it. The lion was a pest, taking away the only source of income and livelihood from a man who had probably children and a wife to feed and sustain. And then a leopard who was baited and killed for the same reason. When i was younger I could not understand why they would kill the animal. They were the ones infringing on the animals territory. But today I understand that conservation must be synonymous with compassion. Mechanisms must compensate and include the communities that face these issues. There has to be upliftment of these communities or else conservation will never fulfill its purpose the way we want it to.
Which is why projects like these are extremely important.
One day in the park a lady villager, confused, asked her friend on seeing a lion, "is that a dog?" and her friend told her that it was "simba" and not a dog. She had never seen a lion before, never in books or pictures or in flesh. How was she to know?!! This is the level of ignorance that exists where knowledge is needed most. And it's not their fault. I found it rather unbelievable, but it was true. Or when we told them about the social structure and behavior of lions, elephants or the impalas, they were so amused and I could tell they were interested. This was re-established when we did their interviews and they recalled things they had learnt. Most importantly, almost all of them seemed to understand that the park provided them with some kind of benefit in one way or another. Either the park authorities financed village school projects, or help renovate village offices, or even built small dispensaries and hospitals. And the windfall economics of tourism ofcourse.
Another beautiful moment in the park was lunch time. We always stopped at such beautiful serene locations.
Everyone would lunch in peace and rest before continuing on our journey. And the villagers would often ask questions about the ways of the west, or about me in particular, or often about love and relationships in western culture. And they would share stories with me. What amazing memories! Sometimes elephants would be around, walking in the river bed with their young, or drinking from an almost diminished streamlet. It often rained around lunch and the park would suddenly be reborn. Rain in the Ruaha can be so spectacular!
So park trips for me contained the excitement of watching wildlife (sometimes ours, being the only vehicle in the whole park) and interactions with villagers who were learning things that day that they never knew and seeing things they had never seen. And the most heart-rendering moments were those when one of them wanted a picture with me and the look on their faces when we were returning home, so fulfilled and satisfied. You could tell they had had a great day. And some of them overcome with their gratitude often hugged me and thanked me many times for the day. It was such a humbling feeling.
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