| July 8, 2008 (Tuesday) 11:30 A.M. (Amsterdam time) Day 16 - 17 Joining hands as we head out of Africa Today was the climax of months of planning, research, adventure, and correspondence. We were all set to visit Mweka College of African Wildlife Management, situated at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro and meet with the MENTOR Fellows who are sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They have also been investigating the Bushmeat crisis and share our mission. While driving through the coffee plantations up the slope from Moshi, we were greeted with an amazing view of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The upper slopes were ringed with large white clouds and the peak was glistening with snow. After arriving, we unloaded the supplies we needed for the presentation we were to give later that day and then left the main presentation hall for a guided tour of the college. We visited a classroom and the school’s server room before entering the library. The library at Mweka includes over six thousand publications, and within minutes, each of us was able to find a book that appealed to our interests. Once outside the library, we were puzzled to see Dr. Vavra helping one of our guides wrestle a large metal cover off the ground. Once the cover had been removed, what looked like the entrance to a cellar was revealed. A long set of concrete stairs led down into the darkness. Our guide explained that this was the entrance to a cave network the Chaga tribe had built to hide from Maasai raiders. This story was remarkably similar to that of the Iraqw people and their underground hideout. The tunnel stretches from the entrance near the library to a river half a mile from the Mweka campus and includes separate chambers for sleeping, preparing food, and housing for livestock. After a brief exploration of the cave, we visited one of Mweka’s laboratory classrooms. Many phyla were represented in the college’s remarkable collection. The room was lined with shelves of countless vials containing the preserved bodies of animals. We saw skulls of several large herbivores (including hippopotamus and rhinoceros) as well as skeletons of crocodiles and a few species of snakes, including a Black Mamba – a species that, years before, had struck Dr. Vavra’s boot while he was on foot safari in Kenya. Luckily this most deadly of local snakes didn’t puncture his boot. After an enjoyable and informative tour, we returned to the presentation hall, which is an amazing room. It was like sitting in an East African hall that one might find at a natural history museum. The agenda began with a lecture by Dr. Abuid Kaswamila, an ecology expert from Mweka. He discussed the history of the college and its mission, and answered any questions that we had. Then it was time for our presentation. Dr. Vavra, Megan, and Zac described the ongoing DNA barcoding study we have conducted in Dr. Vavra’s biotechnology class, our concern about the Bushmeat crisis, and the origins of the African Bushmeat Expedition. Other HTH students contributed with a account of our safari and wildlife conservation topics we had investigated in a variety of national parks and communities in Tanzania. The assembly was greatly interested in, and impressed with our work. The meeting was a great success. It was fantastic to bring together all that we had learned in the classroom the past few years and in the field the past few weeks. The PowerPoint we used in our presentation will soon be available for online viewing. After lunching with the MENTOR Fellows we shared stories and common objectives relating to the African Bushmeat crisis. This very passionate group included: -Mr. Iregi Mwenja We held a roundtable discussion on a variety of aspects of the Bushmeat crisis that provided much enlightenment. We conducted brief interviews with each MENTOR Fellow and discussed our plans for the future. The conversation focused on the need for a DNA barcoding facility in Tanzania and other East African countries, in order to prove the identity of Bushmeat products and help prosecutors to convict poachers. It was extremely gratifying to hear that each country represented – Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, expressed very strong interest in starting the use of DNA barcoding for species identification of Bushmeat samples. Some of the greatest support came from Uganda, where we heard of the wildlife officials’ struggle to bolster evidence against captured poachers and markets that sell Bushmeat. We also discussed arrangements for a training workshop in East African to faciliate the processing of wildlife biomaterial. The Fellows from Sudan described the incredible difficulty that exists in identifying species when hooves and skin have been removed from captured wildlife. As we left Mweka College, all of us felt that our trip’s goals had been accomplished. We had begun the process of helping to put an end to the Bushmeat crisis. We look forward to further collaboration among HTH, Mweka College, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the MENTOR Fellows.
After stopping at the hotel to retrieve luggage, we left for the Kilimanjaro Airport. Our final drive through Tanzania was a scenic, if somewhat sad one. We were treated to the finest views of snow-capped Kilimanjaro. Since our arrival in Tanzania had been late at night, we saw the area surrounding the airport for the first time. After some difficulty in securing boarding passes, we made it through security and boarded our flight to Dar Es Salaam. Our first flight was a short one. After reaching Dar Es Salaam, we departed once more. It was an eight-hour flight to the Amsterdam airport. That is where we now sit (in the same spot where we wrote our first blog entry). Soon we will depart for Minneapolis, and from there make our final transfer to San Diego. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home.” But we will never forget the incredible people, geography, and wildlife that we were privileged to encounter on our journey to Tanzania.
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