Trips

Sat., 8/12/2017 – Karatu
       Today we drove through rolling farm fields with landscape not unlike Tuscany in Italy, except for the trees that were acacia, euforbia candelabra, and agave and the brick structures (houses) with thatch or corrugated metal roofs.  On the road we saw more ox and donkey carts than cars. 
       We visited three “tribes” of local people.
       The first, and most unique, was a group of real bushmen.  The Hadzabe are true hunter-gatherer nomads.  The men are permitted to kill and eat wild animals. To do this they use bows and arrows that they have made.  The women gather local plants for food or medicine.  They have no permanent structures and move when the animals do.  In the rainy season they stay in hollowed out Baobab trees or in caves.  They speak a “click” language and came originally from the Congo.  Five hundred of the 1300 of their tribe live here in Tanzania.  They find water in the dry season in hollows in the top of Baobab trees or by digging in the sand of a dry riverbed like the elephants that we saw the other day.  They don’t use water for washing themselves.
       We joined a clan leader at a men’s area while the women gathered elsewhere.  Four other men sitting around a small fire were rolling and smoking marijuana.  They grow it in the wet season.  It is illegal but the government ignores most of their illegal activities because they have been doing those things for a thousand years.  The leader showed us the bow and arrows he uses for hunting.  They knock birds out of trees using a corncob on the arrow tip.  They kill baboons using a double barbed arrow so the baboon can’t pull the arrow out and run away.  They use a poison tipped arrow for larger animals like impalas. The poison depresses the nervous system so they fall and can be killed with a knife.
       We walked past some women, looked at a “structure” the men slept in, and walked to a hollow Baobab tree they could use if it rained. 
       Their marriage arrangement is unique.  When a wife is tired of a “husband” or he doesn’t supply enough meat, she can swap him for a different man.  The dowry of the woman is a baboon or honey.  They collect honey from beehives in Baobab trees.
       The men were wearing old T-shirts and shorts and wrapped a skin, probably baboon, around their waist.  They have no intention of changing the way they live but the government insists they be clothed if they are going to meet tourists which this group does to make money for things like metal arrow tips.  They also trade honey for some things.

Transporting shocks of corn	Facilities at the culture center
Hadzabe tribe visit	Hadzabe tribe visit - preparing a marijuana joint
Hadzabe tribe visit	Hadzabe tribe visit - bow and arrows
Hadzabe tribe visit - making a fire	Hadzabe tribe visit - success!
Hadzabe shelter	Hadzabe tribe visit - baobab trees are used for shelter in inclement weather
Hadzabe tribe visit - sap of acacia tree used for arrow poison	Hadzabe tribe visit - dancing
Hadzabe tribe visit - women of the tribe	Hadzabe tribe visit - crafts for sale
We drove part way back to the culture center, which arranges this kind of visit yet allows the tribes and clans to maintain their special culture, to visit a group of Barbaig tribe men who recycle metal things like nails, pipe fittings, bicycle pedals, etc. into usable things like arrow heads for the bushmen or bracelets for the tribe women to wear or sell.  They also make spoons and knives.  We watched as two men created a hot charcoal fire using bellows made from cowhide and a hollow gourd.  Another man then melted a pipe joint until it was liquid and then poured it into a mold, cooled it in water, and then hammered it into whatever shape they needed.  We looked at the variety of the things they had made including nice bracelets and a spork – an aluminum fork at one end and spoon at the other.
Barbaig tribe house	Barbaig tribe metal workers
Barbaig tribe metal workers	Barbaig tribe product
Barbaig tribe product	The third group we visited were the Datoga cattle herders.  The chief was 97 years old (we met him) and he had nine wives and 100 children!  All three of these groups were polygamous.  The Datoga survive mainly on milk, blood, and meat from their cows and goats.  The dowry for one wife is still 20 cows.  Change is coming to these people because most of the children now at least go to primary school.
Datoga tribe house	Datoga tribe - making flour
Datoga tribe	Datoga tribe - water containers
Datoga tribe chief	Coming and going from our tribal visits, we travelled through an area of huge, old baobab trees. They are quite majestic, even if they are very odd-shaped.
Baobab trees	Baobab trees
Baobab tree	Flocks of Birds
Irrigated Farm Land	Irrigated Farm Land
Euforbia Candelabrum	The Land
Village	We had the rest of the day off, but Pat, Bill, and I joined Pasco from the lodge for a walk around the neighboring fields. I tried to learn the difference between wheat and barley, but also saw sorghum and millet among the corn/pigeon pea fields.
Pigeon peas	Wheat
Path made by an Elephant through the barley - very destructive	Corn drying in the yard

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