Final Reflections
So this is LONG overdue considering I have been back in the states for about a month now, however I feel that I need to properly end my blog with a final reflections post. First I would like to thank everyone who has read any part of it and who has followed me throughout the semester. I have received so much positive feedback about my blog and it felt great to know that people back home were reading my work. I have come to really enjoy blogging and may take it up again someday during my next adventure.
So let me start by saying this. Everyone should make a point in his or her life to travel to Africa, as it is a beautiful and amazing place. Tanzania will always hold a special place in my heart and be considered a home abroad. I have tried to captivate the beauty of the landscape, wildlife, people, and culture throughout my stay there, but my words still cannot do it justice. It is something that everyone should experience for themselves.
My time in Tanzania changed me in so many ways. I would say that overall the experience was a challenge for me, but the greatest challenge I have ever had the fortune of facing. What I have brought back with me will stay with me for the rest of my life, and no I am not talking about my suitcases full of bows and arrows and other treasures. So here’s everything…..
How has this changed and/or reinforced my career goals?
Tanzania did not make me change my career goals all that much. It rather reinforced my love and desire to do research and my passion for conservation. I still intend on entering into a PhD program in a conservation field and conducting research. I am 100% certain that I want my focus to be on wildlife. I have also concluded that I do not want to live abroad to conduct my research because I value my time with friends and family too much to sacrifice that. However, I see such a demand for conservation outside American boundaries that I would like it if my research were based abroad with frequent field expeditions.
2. What was my biggest challenge?
Homesickness. The first few weeks of the program were the hardest as I never anticipated how much being away from loved ones back home would affect me. Because I struggled with this the first few weeks I had a hard time being myself around others in the program. My natural reaction to feeling uncomfortable and not myself is to become reserved and more introverted than usual. Because it took me so long to feel comfortable in my new home I was never fully able to open up as much as I normally would around my peers on the program. My homesickness was certainly the hardest part as I was able to adjust to the new lifestyle without much of a problem. I realized towards the end of the program how lucky I was that I had so many meaningful people in my life here in America that made being away from them so hard.
3. My favorite experience?
To simple answer: none! I have been asked this a couple of times and the entire experience as a whole was amazing and life changing. If I really really had to narrow it down I would say that our expedition to Serengeti was one of the most amazing times I had.
4. Things I learned about the type of life I want to live
For the first time in my life I was able to taste the feeling of doing something for myself and pursuing personal dreams and passions. And for the first time in my life I realized the value of making these types of decisions. For most of my life I have been focused on meeting societal expectations of a good resume, good grades, getting a job etc, instead of making my own expectations for myself and what I want my life to be. I have always dreamed of traveling the world and always had Africa at the top of my list. I have passions for nature, wildlife, and wildlife photography that I was able to eat, sleep, and breathe for three months. Doing this I felt fulfilled, content, and happy. My heart was full. I decided that upon my return to America that I would not let myself get weighted down by bullshit that may seem life defining at the time but in the grand scheme of things is nothing in the pursuit of what you want your life to be. I will never stop seeking out things that make me happy. I will seek out work that make me happy and, people that make me happy, and if I find myself in positions where I am not, I will be proactive about changing it. I know this will be challenging at times but I will always strive for this.
From now on, I will strive to ensure that everything I do in my life has meaning, and this meaning is completely self-defined and it does not matter if nobody else can understand it because it’s what is going to make ME happy. I think it's time we all celebrated and embraced some selfishness because honestly our society will be a lot less negative if people actively sought out things that bring them joy. Sometimes it is easy to feel that our society does not want us to be happy, but trust me, it is not the goal of the universe to make you miserable. Yes, we will all fall on hard times and terrible things do happen to good people. However, most of the time you in complete control of your own happiness or unhappiness.
For example, my new approach to my last two college semesters are to take breaks from coursework and my job. I will stop feeling guilty about taking breaks from always working hard. I will still put in the work to be successful, but I will make more time for pleasure reading, learning about topics that I want to know more about instead of what my professor tells me I should know, hiking and being outside, traveling to new places for the heck of it, and of course taking more pictures. My photography is something that I am going to make far more time for now that I am home.
As for the rest of my life, I want to live less wasteful. I will stop looking at the value of how many material things I can accumulate in a lifetime and start seeking the value of memories and adventures. I want to live modestly. I do not want a large fancy home and expensive things. Instead I want to use however much money I make to travel, try new things, and live in the moment. One of my favorite quotes is this: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” Tanzania showed me that everyday is the day to live. Why keep adding to your bucket list when you can just do it? I want to live, and that is the life I will create for myself. My semester taught me that there are so many more ways to live. Start questioning your daily robotic routines.
5. Conventional American education sucks
I learned that we really need to address our education system. Tanzania reminded me what education really is. I have come to the sad realization that our “education” system has become so caught up in nonsense that it forgot the whole meaning of the word. We care far more about standardized tests scores and using them to define individual intelligence or using them to evaluate the effectiveness of educational institutions than we should. Just a bunch of random scores are where we are putting all of our time, energy, and resources. Are you kidding me?
Not to mention we spend THOUSANDS of dollars for a piece of paper where we spend countless hours sitting inside a classroom being told to learn a bunch of stuff that is oftentimes not relevant to our major or career goals. Yet at 18 years old we enter into this collegiate world of academia where we are told (with VERY little concept of what the world even has to offer) to pick what we want to do for the rest of our lives, struggle for the next 30 years (if you’re lucky) to pay for it, and waste so much of your time on topics and in classes that probably aren’t doing all that much to help you. Remember all the blood, sweat, and tears about a grade for a class that really isn’t relevant to your actual field but you needed to take it because the next expensive level of schooling said you need it to get in? We all know what I’m talking about.
Anyways, we need to stop and think that there is always more than one way of doing things, and right now we have been raised to believe that there is one way of education. My program in Tanzania gave me the taste for a different way of learning. I finally got to spend three months intensively learning about the exact part of my field I want to go into: wildlife management. All of my coursework was focused on this area. The real beauty of the program was that we would learn field techniques or the ecology of specific mammals and then go out into the field later that day to observe or practice this new knowledge for our own. Instead of just learning different ways to perform animal counts, I actually did many of them. I don’t think I need to explain how valuable the actual field experience is. I also found that I retained far more knowledge in three months than I have ever been able to do in a semester at Westfield. I was also able to conduct research and gain so much valuable experience and knowledge about this type of work that I want to do.
The world has so much to offer and learning new perspectives is perhaps the most valuable aspect of education. Yes, we can sit in a classroom and talk about different places and cultures. However, the value of experiencing it first hand is incomparable. Feeling for yourself is far better than being told and writing it down to study for a later exam. Education needs to take place outside classroom walls more than inside of them. Education is preparing us for the real world so what better way to achieve that than by actually going out and experiencing things first hand? We need to spend more time interacting with our world. That is where we will find a valuable education and right now our standard education system is limiting this interaction. I learned more valuable perspectives about my field in Tanzania that I fear would have taken me years to come to the same realizations had I never gone. I believe that we should all challenge ourselves to seek new ways of educating ourselves and whether we are still in the education system or not to always seek to continue our own personal educations. Education should not be confined to a classroom and it is wrong to be raised to believe that it might.
6. Tourism is not all good
I will keep this section short and if you would like to read more about my thoughts and experiences with this conclusion please see my blog post about my expedition to Serengeti and my Maasai post. From the perspective of wildlife, tourism brings into protected areas a lot of human presence. So much so that suddenly every day of these wild creatures’ lives they are being followed around by anywhere from a single to a hundred cars. As a result, the wildlife becomes remarkably habituated to our presence. Through tourism we are losing some of the beauty behind the parks as they are slowly becoming less wild and more interrupted by our presence. I witnessed far too many animals on safari become stressed due to cars following them as well as watched a lioness lose a hunting opportunity due to inconsiderate safari cars drawing attention to her and blocking her from her prey.
From a cultural perspective, the more western and modernized people come to countries like Tanzania, the more our ideals are thrust upon them whether we are aware of it or not. We forget to stop and think about how that may be impacting other cultures such as the Maasai or Hadzabe. By our cultures mixing we are creating a melting pot of uniform composition that is failing to preserve the ancient traditions and cultures that people travel the world to go experience. Also, whether we are aware of this or not, oftentimes tourists are not being fed the “authentic” cultural experience. For me personally, I will evaluate my footprint as a future tourist and do my best to make sure that what I am doing doesn’t leave behind any negative impacts.
7. Climate change is a real issue that we all need to actively address
In Tanzania I witnessed how devastating climate change can be. In places such as East Africa, entire ecosystems and societies rely on water. Yes we all need water, but the devastation that ensues without it in this part of the world is simply tragic. For example, nearly all people rely on agriculture or raising livestock, which both require large sums of water. These practices must be successful because it is not only their only source of limited income but also their source of food to feed their families.
Climate change is manifesting itself in changing precipitation patterns. They have short rains and long rains seasons, each separated by dry seasons. What is happening is that either the rains will show up very late and induce drought or they will last far longer than anticipated and reap lots of flood damage. Even while I was there the short rains arrived so late that they would only last a few weeks instead of a couple months. How can people possibly successfully grow crops with this kind of unpredictability?
I think it goes without saying that wildlife will be adversely affected if water sources dry up. Especially when there are so many water dependent creatures such as elephants that are already under conservation threat. Climate change has also been discovered to be the culprit behind massive flamingo die offs due to food sources changing.
One of the major issues behind climate change in Tanzania is that the people do not have an understanding of what it is, how its causing the changes in the rains, that the rest of the developed world is mainly responsible for it, and have no clue what approaches they can take to mitigate the effects. These people need help dealing with climate change first and foremost or we will begin losing these precious places on Earth first.
Anyways, I witnessed first hand just how important this issue is and how devastating it can be. Sure we can watch it on documentaries but its different to witness people struggling first hand. It really changed by perspective on my role in the process, and that is that I need to start playing a much bigger one. I am, and the rest of the world, are not doing enough to address this problem and it is very very real. We watched a recently released documentary when in Tanzania called “Before the Flood”. I highly recommend that everyone take the time to watch it. Personally, I pledge to do more to help our society deal with this very real problem we have created for ourselves.
8. Mother Nature is earth’s greatest treasure and we suck at preserving it. If you take the time to observe and appreciation other living creatures you will realize that they are capable of far deeper understanding than we give them credit for
While in Tanzania I have come to appreciate the treasures of nature so much more. I have always been passionate about our natural world, but sometimes I forget to sit back and let myself be inspired by it. Listen up people, we are LUCKY to be born on this crazy beautiful planet we call Earth. It is our PRIVILAGE to exist on it, as our very existence is the concoction of natural forces working together over millions of years. We DO NOT have a right to this place. No creature has more of a right to be here than any other. We must learn to COEXIST with all other living organisms that we SHARE this place with.
This was a major take home message for me after Tanzania. We certainly do not do enough to take care of this planet and do not take the time to appreciate all it has to offer. After my experience, I truly feel that other animals are more aware of us and our destruction than we give them credit for. I feel that other animals are far more emotionally affected from our actions than we might think. For example, in the case of all highly social animals, when we hunt or hurt members of a family, it would be ignorant to think that losing that bond does not go unnoticed. Elephants are a perfect example as they will actively mourn the loss of their loved ones. After observing many of these creatures in the wild for so many hours, I have come to this conclusion. We need to start being more aware of how our actions might harm other creatures beyond just other humans. As part of my career in conservation one of my major goals will be to try to influence others to re-evaluate our place on this earth to be co-existers and not conquerors.
9. Conservation is the art of establishing harmony and balance between humans and the rest of our natural world.
Tanzania made me re evaluate my perspective of conservation. I realized that conservation is a field that is far more personal than it may initially seem. At first, it might seem like its all about wildlife and our natural resources. However, this idea detaches humans from the big picture, when in reality we are one half of it. We have created it so that its humans against the rest of the world and that is why we are facing so many problems. We once were a part of a balanced system where we were only one small part of the planet ecosystem. However, we have disrupted this balance. I now believe that the field of conservation is really about re establishing this balance, where no part of the entire system takes more than what it gives back. This may be a naïve goal I realize, but I really believe in this approach to the field.
In Tanzania, I witnessed two perspectives. One being the classic “humans are wreaking havoc on our wildlife” through poaching, over-hunting, habitat loss, insularization etc. However, I also got to see another side of things, where sometimes wildlife can wreak havoc on humans. I witnessed this many times in regards to crop raiding and livestock predation. I realized that yes, wildlife matters, but so do the people. We need to address the good and the bad of both sides in order to do any good for either party. For example, if wildlife are adversely impacting people then we need to address that issue as aggressively as we advocate for the wildlife. People need to feel taken care of before we can ask them to take care of something else like nature. We also need people to believe in the fact that we are entirely dependent on maintaining the balance of our ecosystems because there will be no us if there is no nature.
Culture is also a major component to this piece. I have to admit that the thought of choosing a career where my focus will be working with animals and not people is more than enticing. However, I have come to the realization that I really need to understand people and why they do what they do if I really want to make anything better for wildlife. Before I go anywhere and tell a group of people to do anything, I need to evaluate how the wildlife AND people will either benefit or not.
Thus, I believe my future career to really be a quest for finding compromise and re establishing the balance of our chaotic planet. We need to make it so that people have enough food to feed their families and the wildlife have a habitat to thrive.
10. A few other thoughts…
Treasure your friends and family. Sometimes it takes being away from them to realize how important they are to you. Sometimes it takes being away to realize that it might be time to lose touch with others.
GO TO TANZANIA. I will be going back one day. It is home to some of the most beautiful most genuine people I have ever met and to some of the most beautiful treasures Mother Nature has to offer.
Actually, just travel. Just do it. Don’t use money as an excuse. Make it happen. Go places that are different from what you are used to. Try to connect to others that speak a different language. Try things that make you uncomfortable. Seek new perspectives. Just go freaking see what else is out there for god sakes it’s amazing.
Always seek out new perspectives so that you can evaluate and criticize your own way of life and society instead of judging others or robotically following in the pursuit of the majority. America has a long way to grow. Challenge our society. Think of ways you can break the mold. Third world countries have far more lessons to teach us than our first world minds can even comprehend. Do not judge, criticize, or formulate opinions until you try to understand differences from another point of view
11. Some other conclusions I came to which may or may not make sense to some of you…
Squatty potties are not an ideal source of public bathrooms
You can go without a shower for 6 days and survive. You will be gross and you will hate it but you will survive
Napkins and paper towels are not the key to success
Washers and dryers are for sissys
Mosquito nets are surprisingly homey
You can break bad habits and create good ones...it is possible
Pizza is necessary for survival, however, it is possible to live without it..temporarily...just barely (Pizza point saved me from perishing)
Poop isn't all bad
Goats and sheep will forever be shoats. They will never be separated again.
Zebras have the greatest ass in all of animal kingdom
You can live in rural Africa with everything you need fitting into two suitcases for three months
Hot showers and good water pressure are my weakness
If you give me something I will say asante. If you ask how I am, I will say nzuri sana. If you irritate me I will say hapana asante tafadali. And if I don’t say it outright I am 100% thinking it.
Pole-pole is life (basically quite stressing and take an actual chill pill for life)
Overall, my experience was absolutely incredible and amazing and wonderful and did I say amazing? I think you get my point. Africa is a beautiful continent and Tanzania a magical place. I am so incredibly lucky that I got to experience only a piece of it. I would also highly recommend my abroad program to any one out there who wants to travel, is passionate about the environment, and wants an authentic experience. I would not have experienced Tanzania the same way or walked away with the same perspectives if I only came as a tourist on vacation someday.
The last thing that I want to talk a little bit about is my experience with reverse culture shock. I figured that it would hit me right away coming back into busy airports and landing outside New York City of all places. However, my experience with it has been much more subtle. I adjusted back to everything far too quickly in my opinion. I had hoped it would be a little harder to fall back into the routines that I enjoyed being away from in Tanzania. However, I was elated to see family and friends.
One of the biggest issues I have had has been driving. Driving on the roads with so many other cars driven by careless people and others in so much of a hurry that I have found it irritating and stressful. I used to love driving but now it is not nearly as enjoyable. The more I have been driving the less overwhelming it becomes. Another thing that I have experienced is generally high levels of stress. For anyone who knows me a little bit knows I am a chronic stress-ball. However, even though I am often stressed it usually is a source of motivation and I am always getting things done on my to do list. However, since being back I am highly unmotivated to deal with things here such as finding another job, setting up an honors thesis project, paying tuition bills, finding an apartment for next semester, thinking about grad schools, etc. I simply do not want to do it. Back in Tanzania everything I did felt that it was being done for something bigger and greater than myself. I felt I was always accomplishing something that was not for the benefit of myself. However, all the sources of stress in my life in America seem menial in comparison and I really am not thrilled about participating again in the competitive lifestyle with high expectations that our society places on 20 year olds.
Another piece of culture shock that has been less than pleasant has been these new voices in my head that constantly make me question everything I do. Is this good for the environment? Are you being materialistic right now? Don’t use that paper towel you don’t need it! It is a constant battle in my head trying to find a balance between these two drastic lifestyles I have come to know. I do not know if any of my fellow peers on the trip are experiencing any of these same things, but if so, you are not the only one!
I have noticed that these frustrations have caused me to be anxious, always stressed, and highly negative since I have been home. I am sure that sooner than later I will readjust and feel a little more like myself again. However, overall, my experience with culture shock has not been terrible.
Again, thank you to all my readers and followers throughout the semester, you inspired me to keep writing, reflecting, and sharing all my experiences! This is a wrap folks, until my next adventure…..!
