An eight-person team is mountain biking through Africa on an archaeological expedition in search of the origins of man and to find out why so many of Africa's animals are disappearing. Follow along here as they update their diary.

Nature Notes: Changes in the Crater

November 6, 1998
Web posted at: 5:45 PM EDT

NGORONGORO CRATER, Tanzania -- Today I went down into Ngorongoro Crater. Climbing into the crater was like climbing into a huge bowl of animal soup. On the crater floor, I found what some call the greatest profusion of wildlife in Africa. I also found a great mystery.

The crater is the only source of fresh water and mineral salts for up to fifty miles. It has been protected as a park since 1959, but populations of wildlife have shrunk drastically since the 1960's. Why?

To help me solve the mystery, I sought out naturalist Illona Seute. Illona is the chief guide at Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, one of the area's leading safari lodges.

Illona met me in the lodge's lavish reading room, which is perched on the edge of the crater. Wearing neat khaki pants and a freshly pressed shirt, she looked too clean to be a field guide. Illona has been driving down the tortuous (bumpy) road into the crater four times a week for a year. "I could spend my life down there", she told me. "It never gets boring. You get to know the animals, and they're always doing something incredible. Once I saw 20 hyenas bring down a huge male cape buffalo for their dinner."

In 1966 there were 108 rhino in the crater. Today there may be as few as 13, and wildebeest and lion populations have also decreased sharply.

When I asked her why so many animals had died, she laughed. "Here you're dealing with everything from disease to changing climate, encroachment by other animals, and of course, people."

But declines are not always just "bad." Sometimes, they're just changes. Often, the decline of one species results in increases of another species. For instance, Illona says that the number of cheetah and leopard in the park has gone up since the number of lions has gone down. Hyena and wild dog populations also tend to increase when there are fewer lions. Why? These animals compete with lions for food and other resources.

Cape buffalo are pushing wildebeest out of the crater, but the reason is not so simple. A few years ago, the government made a new rule. They stopped allowing the Maasai people to burn grass on the crater floor. This caused a different species of grass to take over. The buffalo can eat this new species of grass, but wildebeest can't. By prohibiting burning, is the government causing wildebeest to decline, or allowing cape buffalo populations to increase?

After all the talk of declining wildlife, I expected my visit to the crater floor to be depressing. It was just the opposite. I was thrilled and inspired!

I saw huge herds of wildebeest, cape buffalo, and zebra, stretching into the distance. I also saw lions, hippos, rhinos, and a serval cat, all up close! (Take a look at the video of the serval cat!) There weren't many people in the crater. The crater floor isn't developed at all compared to land in U.S. parks.

I guess I could spend all my time trying to imagine what Africa was like fifty years ago, and focus on the wildlife declines. But today, I was so excited I couldn't help being happy! Visiting Africa is still a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it is one that I feel so lucky to have. I hope you are enjoying this visit as much as I am!

Civilization can be uncivilized

November 5, 1998

NGORONGORO CRATER, Tanzania -- After five weeks of opening my Compaq almost every day to write something, I really enjoyed the freedom of biking through the wilderness. At night, we camped under a full moon. Wild animals roamed nearby, and I left my computer in its case while I watched them. I spent evenings lying on my back, looking at the night sky.

One night I saw a shooting star fall from the center of the sky. It streaked all the way to the horizon. Watching the star fall, it struck me that one of my ancestors could have seen the exact same spectacle a million years ago. But it was different back then. A million years ago was long before agriculture, cities, and money had been invented. It was long before everything got so organized.

In fact, the environment of Ngorongoro Crater, where I am right now, is probably like the environment our African ancestors lived in over two million years ago. Then again, the paleontologist who suggested this, Dr. Robert Blumenschine, probably wasn't thinking about what's going on at Ngorongoro Crater today. I doubt he thought of the security guards, gift shops, safari vehicles, foreign money, and exclusive lodges that are taking over Ngorongoro when he compared Ngorongoro to the ancient environment.

The cars, gift shops, and money are all products of modern society. Things like these have only been around for about 5,000 years. That was when civilizations, such as Mesopotamia, started up in different parts of the world. That's when some people began to amass more wealth and power than others. That's when the "haves" started separating themselves from the "have-nots."

Civilization, though, has often been built on the backs of people who did not rule. Great buildings, such as Mayan temples and Egyptian pyramids, were built by people who did not have a voice in the rules and laws of their nation. These people were either slaves or they were used as cheap labor. The hard work of many people served the interests of a powerful few. With civilization came inequality and class differences. The story of the Maasai here at Ngorongoro is a perfect example of class difference.

A full moon has come up while I've been writing. It's casting a magical blue light over Ngorongoro crater and Lake Magadi below. Unfortunately, it's drowned out by the brighter and more demanding bluish light of my computer screen -- yet another product of civilization.

Good News from Africa

November 4, 1998

MONDULI, Tanzania -- Yesterday we visited a Maasai Girl's School in Monduli. The headmistress, Mary Laiser, let us pitch our tents in a field just outside the school. In the blue light of the moon, we cooked spaghetti (my grandma Palermo's recipe) over an open fire, and wrote our reports sitting cross-legged in the grass. In the morning, we walked up the hill, past bushes that were heavy with coffee beans, and through the school's front gate. Through the windows we could see the girls. All of them are between the ages of 15 and 19, and they all wear close-cut hair and red sweatshirts.

Laiser met us in her office. She is short and has a pleasant face and tightly braided hair. For our interview she wore a t-shirt and long skirt. Her beaded earrings were the only thing that gave away her Maasai heritage and extraordinary upbringing. She grew up as a nomad, went to school, and graduated from college in Dubuque, Iowa.

"This school was founded on the belief that the key to the Massai's transition into modern life lies in educating their girls," she began. "But it is a very difficult task."

The Maasai, nomadic herders with a reputation as fierce warriors, don't place a high value on education. Girls are often considered important because, when they marry, they fetch a bride price. The bride price is paid in cows. An educated woman is therefore a dangerous thing: she may not want to marry the person chosen by her parents. Marriages are pre-arranged (or planned) and the bride price paid at the girl's birth. If a woman doesn't marry her pre-selected husband, the father must pay back her bride price -- with interest!

"When these girls graduate, THEY will be the ones who transform the Maasai," continued Mary. "Educate a boy and you educate an individual; educate a girl and you educate a whole family. It's the women in the Maasai culture who take care of the children, make sure they are healthy and shape them for the future."

I know education of boys and girls is different in other parts of the world, but Mary really showed how educating these girls might help change the future for all Maasai.

"When the girls go back to their villages as doctors, engineers and community leaders, then the Maasai will really see the value of education. Then our job will be easy."

Knowledge is Golden

November 3, 1998

Traditional medicinal herbs being sold in a Tanzanian market.

TANZANIA, East Africa -- AIDS in Africa has been described as a slow burning tragedy.

Worldwide, 30 million people are living with the virus that causes AIDS (and HIV disease). Of these, 21 million are in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya reports that 1.5 million people there are infected (including 90,000 children) and 250,000 people have died. As many as 8,500 people are infected with the virus daily. Of them, 1000 are children under 15 years of age. In some parts of Tanzania, where the team is right now, the disease is so common that most people have a family member or friends with HIV.

As parents die many children appear on city streets living as homeless orphans. It's not unusual to see a nine year old child trying to care for a younger brother or sister, or groups of 12 homeless children all trying to find food to share with each other. The Tanzanian National AIDS Control Program estimated in 1995 that there are 200,000 children orphaned by AIDS. They predict that number will increase fourfold over the next five years.

In response to this crisis African governments and other organizations are developing programs to get orphaned children off the streets, place them in foster homes and back into school. Of the children who don't get involved in these programs many remain on the street and often become addicted to inhaling glue. All too often in order to pay for the glue these children expose themselves to the virus by having unprotected sex.

With little money for treatment, health care workers in east Africa depend on education as their primary tool for combating AIDS. Like many of the things in my medical bag, their strategy is about prevention. All areas of the public have been recruited in this educational effort from traditional healers who teach their clients how to use condoms to boy scouts who carve wooden models for the condoms. The educational messages are often performed as short plays which teach people how the virus is spread, to have only one partner and to delay the age at which they start having sex.

Slowly but surely these efforts are beginning to pay off. Old ways of thinking and behaving are changing as people get more knowledgeable about how to take better care of themselves and their loved ones. I was happy to see that there are now fewer homeless children on the streets of Nairobi than there were five years ago when I first biked across Africa.

Right on Africa. Keep on keeping on!

Meeting Maasai in Tanzania

November 2, 1998

ARUSHA, Tanzania -- We turned off the main highway and headed eastward on a dirt track through scrubby grasslands and thorny bush. As we descended, temperatures rose steadily, approaching triple digits. Cycling was still pleasant. I kept my speed at about 11 mph, fast enough to evaporate sweat and keep cool. Every half-hour or so, I'd stop under the shade of an acacia, eat a Powerbar and take a long drink from my water bottle.

We stopped at a Maasai village late in the afternoon. Tall men wearing red robes, beaded jewelry, and sandals made of car tires surrounded me. Some had long, stretched-out earlobes adorned with copper charms that looked like fishing sinkers. They looked beautiful but smelled of sweat and cows. They stared at us and we stared back. I offered a hello in Swahili. "Jambo," I said.

A handsome young man named Stanley Roimen stepped forward and shook my hand. He wondered were I came from.

"America." I told him. "Los Angeles."

"Oh yes, you have the Lakers."

I looked around. His village was in the middle of a vast wasteland. There was no electricity. The nearest television or newspaper was 110 miles away. How could he know about the American Basketball?

In polite English, Stanley told me that he learned about the Lakers when he had gone to school. Stanley liked school, but after graduating, he found that the only work for him was the work of his ancestors--herding cattle. He had managed to put together a herd of only seven animals. He would soon have 10 cattle, which is enough to pay the bride price and marry. On the weekends, he travels to a nearby village where he spends the day socializing with friends. He enjoys sunsets and loves grilled meat. His education didn't bring him any wealth. But, it did bring him a measure of happiness and knowledge. He knew the world and was satisfied with his place in it.

We stepped over to a mud hut where I bought Stanley a warm orange soda. I asked him about Maasai rituals (they don't bury their dead), diet (milk, blood and ugali) and why he hadn't pierced his ears like the other men (because he was educated). Behind us stood two "morani," young warriors who chose the traditional path for Maasai men. They wore feathers and mud in their hair. They carried spears.

With the news of a massacre that killed 300 people fresh in my mind, I asked Stanley why the Maasai still steal cattle.

"We believe that all of the world's cattle are God's gift to the Maasai. Taking other people's cattle as simply taking something that's ours anyway"

"Do you really believe that?" I asked.

"No, but they do," he said, pointing a thumb at the two morani.

"How come you chose not to become a morani?" I asked.

"There is nothing for them anymore," Stanley shot back. "The world is changing, they just don't see it. Not even the elders support them."

"What do the elders say?" I asked.

"They tell them to go to school."

Click here to read the diary from Week One.

Click here to read the diary from Week Two.

Click here to read the diary from Week Three.