Day 11

Migration of the wildebeest, part II

Today I went with Eric Mathew, the “Human Resources Executive” of the Lodge, on a trip to the next and bigger village: Mugumu. On the way I realized once more that you can’t leave the lodge without automatically having a game drive. And so after seeing some other animals we ended up amidst the migrating wildebeest. A few days before we had searched for hours for the wildebeest and now they suddenly surrounded us in thousands. An exciting view!

Mugumu

To call our track to Mugumu a “bumpy road” is a friendly euphemism. Some sections consisted only of deep potholes – but the Bilila Lodge’s 4WD took us comfortably to our destination. However our average speed in these special sections was about 30 km/h and so the journey took us several hours.
Mugumu is located outside the Serengeti National Park and is not a tourist attraction at all. It is a normal, bigger village where everyone from the surrounding does his shopping. But I was curious about the way of living there and Kempinski maintains good connections with the local communities.
Mugumu’s main road mostly consists of stores. Of course, these stores are very basic here: small units that are opened on one side with a hand drawn sign in front. But considering the fact that most people here have only very small incomes, the local economy does remarkably well.

Sergengeti Arts group

Happily it seems like Eric knows nearly everybody in Mugumu. We first went to the “Serengeti Arts Group” where we had a talk to their President Paulina Boma. The Serengeti Arts Group is a community that helps people out of poverty and maintains Tanzanian Culture and traditions. They handcraft indigenous items like necklaces, ethnic garments, animal miniatures, etc. You’ll find the items in many shops in Tanzania’s more tourist-orientated areas. They also offer workshops and seminars concerning the problems of the poorer population.
I was impressed by their own initiative and it was good to see that the people here help and support each other in their development.

The market and the Ikoma Cultural Centre

The market in Mugumu is like all typical markets here: you find everything from fresh fruits, fish, meat, corn and rice to all kinds of cloth and household goods. It is a very lively and friendly atmosphere. Eric introduced me to some sellers there – they all were very charming people. One of them, invited us to visit her farm and so we drove to a small place outside Mugumu.
The farm is part of the Ikoma Cultural Centre. Besides the agriculture, they handcraft wicker baskets and similar items. This community was founded to give the local tribe a new perspective in the changing world. Again I was impressed by the energy with which they helped each other.
After a pleasant chat with these friendly people we headed back to the lodge into a beautiful sunset.