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It's hard to put into words the absolute vastness of the Ngorongoro Crater. It is unquestionably beautiful, and is home to an astounding number of animals. Catherine and I had arranged a safari through our hostel, and set off at 5:30am in an open-air Jeep to the park. As we approached the park, we passed a Maasai village which our guide explained was a traditional Maasai village that you could stop in and visit - for fifty bucks. There is something incredibly depressing to me about this … the commoditization of a people and their lifestyle. The Maasai are nomadic people, quite easily distinguished by their stretched earlobes and traditional garb (called a shuka, but looks like a blanket wrapped around them).As nomadic people, they used to travel throughout most of Kenya and Tanzania with their cattle and had free range of the countries.But as cities expanded and tourism grew, they were forced onto smaller and smaller tracts of land and now they are only allowed to take their cattle down to the lake in the Ngorongoro crater, and stay for a few days before they must exit.
As most of you know, I am an avid people-watcher, and I found the tourists in Africa some of the most fascinating (although all too typical nowadays, and not just here I'm afraid) Throughout our safari, we would pass other Jeeps filled with tourists - usually Westerners, with their gigantic cameras, zip-off pants, dry-fit t-shirts and "safari" vests with 50 pockets. Judging by some of the tour prices I saw online prior to our visit, they were easily paying several thousand dollars for a week long safari. The stark contrast of Africa and its utter poverty with these tourists was extremely depressing. To see these people, returning, I am sure, to air-conditioned hotels, hot showers and clean, bottled water … the juxtaposition of such careless opulence with Africa's abject desolation and poverty was gut-wrenching. Cate and I have been talking at great length about the harassment you experience in Africa (I'll try to share more about that later), but seeing those tourists put things in perspective for me, and I feel like I can begin to understand.
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