Tanzania photo galleries Photography by Graeme Johnson, Alan Steinert, Jr., and Susan Young. Mt Kilimanjaro photo galleries Photos courtesy Norm Boone (MBA ’77) and Linda Lubitz.

It’s 5:30 a.m. As our Jeep bumps along a dirt road under a full, yellowy moon, our driver, Philemon, slows and points off to the left. Behind some bushes we see movement and then make out the huge and powerful form of a lion. He slowly stands, yawns, shakes his mane, and lumbers across the road in front of us. Most of us aren’t morning people, but the majesty of the moment has made us glad we got up before dawn.

Welcome to Tanzania, the self-described “home of the safari” situated on the Indian Ocean in East Africa. Visitors come to see Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding peak in the world; the Serengeti National Park; the Ngorongoro crater; the Maasai people; and the Zanzibar archipelago. Our ten-day HBS alumni excursion was organized by Global Adrenaline, an adventure travel company based in the Chicago area. The overwhelming response to the trip allowed Nancy Collins (MBA ’99), our trip leader and Global Adrenaline’s founder and president, to demonstrate her incredible flexibility and, on short notice, increase our group’s size from thirty to sixty.

While fifteen members of the group arrived a few days before New Year’s in order to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, for most of us our first trip to Africa begins on January 4, 2004, in Arusha, where we rest after traveling from the United States and Canada, Shanghai, Bogotâ¡, London, Paris, Valencia, Santiago, Bangkok, and Auckland. We spend our first four days viewing wild animals in the Ngorongoro crater, Serengeti, and Lake Manyara regions.

Our guides manage simultaneously to maneuver the vehicles through the often-difficult roads, spot and identify animals and birds, discuss (in Swahili) game sightings with other guides on CB radios, and wow us with details of what we are seeing (in English). They are very diplomatic when we misidentify animals or want to take just a few more photos.

On several evenings, we participate in discussions with our academic link to Africa, Harvard professor Caroline Elkins. A historian who specializes in African studies, Elkins helps us understand the continent’s people and past. By the end of the trip, we have an idea why HIV/AIDS has spread so rapidly, a compassion for the people who have been exploited for centuries, and a better understanding of the Maasai who grace the covers of so many books about the continent.

A second academic component centers on a lively case discussion about Tanzanian coffee production with representatives from TechnoServe, a nonprofit dedicated to ending rural poverty in developing countries. Timothy A. Piper (MBA ’88), Techno-Serve’s deputy country director, later invites us to dinner at his home in Dar es Salaam with a special guest: the acting U.S. ambassador to Tanzania.

As the days go by, we move well beyond the initial excitement we experienced when we saw our first zebras and wildebeests, whose exoticism wore off as their numbers grew. Lions, although we see dozens of them by the end of the trip, didn’t lose their aura, nor do we get bored with the quiet grace of elephants and the gawky beauty of giraffes. One of the best surprises is observing how the animals move — the humorous strut of the ostrich, the clumsy run of the hippo, the scamper of the mongoose. Leopards, buffalo, hyenas, rhinos, warthogs, monkeys, baboons, crocodiles, waterbucks, impalas, and pink flamingos also thrill us with their presence.

While the safari is exhilarating, it is also surprisingly tiring. At the end of the day, it is a relief to get to our hotel and be greeted with damp facecloths and a cold glass of juice. The accommodations offer a combination of slower-paced, relaxed African atmosphere with amenities such as private rooms, hot water, even television in some cases. The food, usually served buffet style, includes local specialties — curries, lamb, yucca, and ugali (a starch made from maize) — as well as more traditional Western choices.

The final days of the trip are spent in two resort hotels in Zanzibar, which allows us to gear down and to visit local attractions. The optional activities include a spice tour, a snorkeling and scuba-diving excursion, and a walking tour of Stone Town that takes us to several museums, a local meat and produce market, and the disturbing site of a former slave market.

While our interest in Africa and our HBS affiliation drew us together initially, by the end of the trip we have really come to know one another. As e-mail addresses are exchanged and small reunions are planned, we say goodbye to our friends and hope to see them on the next Global Adrenaline HBS alumni excursion.

— Susan Young

Post a Comment