The Serengeti and Our Blue Nun Escort

This is Part 6 of a 7 part series on my experiences in Tanzania while volunteering with a U.S. based NGO to build a library and community resource center in the village of Nyegina, near the shores of Lake Victoria. To read other parts of this series, please use the term “Tanzania” in this site’s search function. 

If you are old enough, you may remember the movie Lilies of the Field, where some of the central characters were the nuns who, in their full habits, would walk great distances in the heart and dust to the nearest church service. We often saw many nuns, just like the ones from the movie, walking the long distances between Musoma, Nyegina, and other remote villages.  

However, there was this blue nun who would have none of that. Almost without exception, this nun would always and mysteriously show up and ride with us in our charted van. She didn’t communicate with our group organizer or with our driver. She simply showed up and boarded the van with the rest of us. She would sit politely and quietly in her blue habit and white veil while fingering either the wood bead rosary in her hands or the metal crucifix around her neck. 

Our Blue Nun

Once we arrived at the work site, she disembarked with the rest of us only to disappear down some dusty, one-lane dirt road. When it was time to return to Musoma, she would just as mysteriously show up again for the trip back, again sitting politely and quietly until our driver dropped her off at some in-town intersection before taking the rest of us back to our dormitory.

It was never made clear who she was and why she was riding with us. Was she mysteriously assigned to be our escort? Was she an apparition? Or, was she simply trying to hitch a free ride to visit others in the parish? With the language barrier between us, we would ever be able to find out?  

Midway through our two week work assignment, we took some time off to visit the nearby Serengeti National Park. Before boarding our van for the four hour ride to the park, we joked that the blue nun would soon appear and join us for the ride. Sure enough, as we were about to pull away from the dormitory, there she was waiting to join us for the ride. 

We arrived at the western gate of the park at noon. We gathered around to receive our briefing from our guide prior to our 1:00 p.m. departure into the park itself. We split up into 3 trucks, with five to six of us per truck. Each truck had a roof that rose and extended upwards allowing passengers to stand and take unobstructed photos. It was only then did we realize that the blue nun that had accompanied us had quietly moved along. Where she disappeared to, no one knew or could guess since there were no villages or human settlements anywhere near this remote, rugged, and dangerous corner of Tanzania.

Joining me in my truck were some of the work-study students. In no time at all, we were snapping photos of gazelles, zebras, wildebeests, lions, crocs, hippos, ostrich, Cape buffalo, cheetahs, and elephants. The gazelles, zebras, and wildebeest were so numerous that in time, the sight of yet more of them became a boring and routine occurrence such that we were no longer compelled to want to take yet more photographs of them.

One of the students in our van was seeing-impaired and needed our help. He had special binoculars, but didn't know which way to turn. I used the tried and true method of the face of a clock, with 12 o'clock being straight ahead, 9 o'clock being 90 degrees to the left, 3 o'clock being 90 degrees to the right, and so on. He seemed thankful for this, and was experiencing all we were experiencing with the same wonder and awe. 

Hippos wallowing in the river

The time flew by. We headed to camp as it was getting dark. The camp area was a large collection of tents in an open field. Permanent buildings housed the bath and toilet house, as well as two dining halls. A portable trailer housed a concession stand that sold beer. Hmm. Beer in the middle of the Serengeti. Who could resist?

The food was served by several men catering to us and many other campers. They would bring out large stew pots of rice, chicken, fish, and a veggie dish in sauce that was actually quite tasty.  Our dining table was surrounded by numerous camp-style bag chairs. Mine had the Georgia Bulldogs logo on it. Our server wore a hoodie with the words "Door County" emblazoned on the front. It always amazes me that you could be 10,000 miles away from home, as we are here in the Serengeti, and still see these types of reminders of home. 

Just before entering the tents and calling it an evening, our guide offered the following words of wisdom: "If in the middle of the night, you have to get up and go to the bath house, please use your headlight or flashlight. Scan the tree line with them. If you see eyes reflecting back at you, immediately return to your tent. The eyes probably belong to a lion or a hyena."

After hearing this, many may have had trouble falling asleep. However, I slept like a rock. As I dozed off, I was comforted with the thought that it was no wonder that us humans have gathered here in this camp area in large numbers with many tents as shelters. It is the same "safety in numbers" survival technique that much of the wildlife uses here and elsewhere around the world. One of the prey usually gets it from the predator. But the odds of it being you are slim. 

Later in the night, around 4a.m., I did in fact have to get up to use the facilities. There were no eyes shining back at me. Instead, the stars and the Milky Way were shining down on me in a brilliance never before experienced. 

Acacia sunrise

We were told that the morning was the best time to see the big cats in action. With that advice, we awoke before sunrise and wolfed down a couple of cups of coffee with some biscuits. Our early departure paid off. Two cheetahs, one an adult, the other a juvenile, were down in the grass, obviously eating a recent kill of some type for we could see them tearing away at something. Their heads would go down and immediately jerk back up as they tore off chunks of flesh. 

They were being  bothered by a jackal who wanted part of their kill. The younger cheetah would take off to try and chase it away. The older cheetah got distracted and began to chase a baby gazelle that happened to wander into the area. He quickly caught up to it and had it down in the grass for their second kill of the morning. The younger cheetah, tired of chasing away the jackal, joined his elder at this new kill site. It was just what the jackal wanted to happen, for now he had unfettered access to a meal of meat from the first kill site the cheetahs had abandoned.  A large buzzard floated in and stood nearby, waiting for his turn after the jackal had his. 

The daily meal of a gazelle, medium rare

We were about to pull away when the baby gazelle was up and running. It seems the cheetahs were just playing with him, with the older cat teaching the younger one how to conduct a chase and kill. As the gazelle was released, it immediately scampered off. The younger cheetah was off on the chase. He would occasionally look back at his elder as if wanting a nod of approval. The gazelle was eventually dispatched by the two with their powerful paws and teeth. 

It wasn't much later that our truck was encircled by a lioness and her two cubs. Many other trucks with fellow gawkers and photographers arrived to see the show.  The lions continued on their way, never paying attention to the trucks which were only inches away. They were more interested in finding their first meal of the day.

Lion cubs looking for their mother

We could always tell when the top wildlife was showing its stuff by seeing in the distance the gathering of many trucks and their passengers. Our driver would quickly head in their direction to see what's up. In this case, there were two leopards up in the branches of a distant tree. A third one was on the ground underneath them.

With this sighting, we were now able to say we've seen four of the so-called big five. We've seen elephants, Cape buffalo, lions, and now leopards. The one missing is the rhino which we were told we would not see in this part of the park. 

We had our fill and it was time to take the long 3-4 hour drive back to Musoma. At the exit gate, there was our blue nun, reading from her bible while sitting on a log in the shade, waiting for our van and the return ride back to town. It had been a full day since we last saw her. She obviously was safe after doing whatever she did while we were in the park.

But, who in the world was she and what was she up to? We just didn’t know, nor would we ever, even to this day

                                             Video with music of our 24 hours in the Serengeti