After a long week of research and teaching, we were all ready for a fun weekend away. We started out with an adventure to Wili Waterfalls. It was a stunning hike through the jungle to get there and the falls were so worth it!
None of us were actually planning on getting soaked swimming in the pools but because there was so much water coming off and because it was so windy, the water pelted all of us. Regardless of us being soaked and not having towels, we still had a blast!
After the falls we made our way to the village of Tafi Atome, also known as the monkey sanctuary. Even though we were late, the villagers still came out to welcome us. They broke out the drums and started dancing for us. We all felt so welcomed! They even invited us to get up and dance with them. Compared to them, we are the definition of white men can't dance but we loved every second of the cultural immersion anyway!
These drummers were amazing! You couldn't help but become immersed in the beat of the drums and the celebratory atmosphere. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and getting to know the villagers and learning parts of their culture.
So when everyone pictures Africa, generally the image that comes to mind is mud huts, thatched roofs, tropical jungles and wild animals. This experience was the epitome of an African image. We even got to sleep underneath mosquito nets and thank goodness for that. See story below...
This is the friend/enemy Cameron, Hilary and Shantel had in their hut. The name given to this creature isn't exactly appropriate for the University blog so it will be left out :) Although it looks small on this picture, I assure you it isn't. If any of us had the guts to hold our hand next to it you would see that the spider was actually larger than our hands. None of us were going to sleep with that thing crawling freely so the three of us came up with the brilliant plan to kill it with mosquito repellant, sunscreen and cam's shoes. What started out as American ingenuity turned into something of a comedy of errors. It took 30 minutes, nearly being taken out by the low lying ceiling fan, throwing a number of things and Hilary swan diving off of the bed in sheer terror landing on her face to take that thing down.
The monkeys came out to play in the wee hours of the morning! We were all given plantains to hold onto to coax the monkeys out but as it were, the monkeys needed no coaxing. They came out in swarms crawling, climbing and swinging all over us. We were all able to hold and feed a monkey and I am relatively certain it was a highlight for everyone. It will definitely be a let down when we go to the zoo back home after this event.
Walking through the jungle is something of an obstacle course in and of itself. The trails are there, just not the best maintained. Thank goodness our group was pretty well balanced or this hike would have gotten awfully muddy really fast.
This was the breakfast we were served in the village after feeding and playing with the monkeys. It was...traditional. Definitely something to add to our growing list of cultural experiences we are having while we are here.
Cameron fell in love with this darling little boy who had down-syndrome. He was absolutely adorable and followed Cam everywhere giving him hugs nonstop. The kids here are adorable! I think all of us at some point have wanted to take one home with us!!
By: Hilary
