“Clearing the runway of cows and donkeys (or gazelles in a few cases), then taking off into the setting sun… it was all memorable.”
-KJZZ producer Benedict Moran
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Welcome to the NPR Station Showcase with PRX. I’m your host and curator Aaron Henkin. Each week on this podcast we give a little extra attention to one of the many the excellent stories being produced around the clock at the hundreds of different public radio stations around the country. This week, we travel west to Phoenix, Arizona to hear a story that actually takes us across the Atlantic to East Africa. Benedict Moran is a producer at Phoenix’s KJZZ, and Ben’s sister, Becca, just happens to have a very cool job. She’s a pilot with the Flying Medical Service, and she spends her days performing emergency evacuations and delivering medical supplies to the Maasai people in remote regions of Northern Tanzania. Ben recently took a trip to Africa to visit his sister, and he put together a great three-part radio series about the work she’s doing there. Here’s a Q & A with Ben about his experiences during the visit…
What did you think Tanzania was going to be like before you took off on your trip, and what surprised you most about what the place was actually like when you got there?
I had visited Tanzania briefly in 2003, but had then stayed with expatriate friends from the United States and wasn’t able to get much exposure to the Swahili and Maasai cultures. And I had been elsewhere in Africa and seen the pictures of Tanzania that my sister had taken from her flights. But it did not prepare me for the beauty of the place nor for the amazing kindness of the Maasai. I was very excited about this: Maasais are incredibly honest, on a whole, and it wasn’t something that I was used to, having just spent over 2 years in a part of West Africa that is very corrupt. Their compound sits at the foot of the 15,000 ft. Mount Meru – which was topped with a crest of snow on some days. To their West was the great Oldonyo Lengai Volcano and the Serengeti, and just behind Meru is the well-known Kilimanjaro. In between roam little else than the Maasai, their cattle, and the wild elephants, zebras, wildebeests, and the other wild animals that have always been there. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. And the most fun!
What memories have stuck with you most about your experiences with the Maasai people?
The chaos that sometimes went with vaccinations – there were often so many mothers and children that we ran out of needles and vaccinations, or had to leave before everyone was vaccinated because of the setting sun (it’s illegal for the planes to land more than 15 minutes after the sun sets). Sometimes we would take a breather and chat with the Maasai warriors (who are called Morani in the Maasai language), or go play with the kids. Clearing the runway of cows and donkeys (or gazelles in a few cases), then taking off into the setting sun… it was all memorable.
Your sister’s got an incredible job! How did she get into that line of work?
Becca had spent a few years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Central Pacific country of Kiribati. Afterwards she traveled in Asia and Africa for almost two years. During her travels she started volunteering with Flying Medical Service (FMS), and was so impressed and excited about them that she decided to go to Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, to study for her pilot’s license. When a pilot position opened up with FMS a little over a year later, she took the job! That’s the short version of the story…
Let me ask you this out of pure curiosity: What’s it like to find yourself surrounded at night by ‘marauding hyenas’?
Actually both the pilot and I needed to pee badly around the time we heard the hyenas running around outside. They were quite close – they made a frightening sound that resembled a combination of a dog’s bark and donkey’s bray, and it was as if they were sniffing at the doorstep, their footsteps clearly audible through the thin walls. For about 30 minutes they ran franticly about the workers’ camp. Even after they had settled down we were too scared to leave the bungalow! At first light we saw three of them laying together in the middle of the road, right in front us. And then, as the sun rose slowly, so did they, and they made their way into the bush.
How long were you over there on your visit? Did you go through some culture shock when you got back here to the States?
I was in Tanzania for a month. Every time I return from such a trip I experience some sort of culture shock. It is especially strong if I return to a place like Arizona, where there is so much wealth and development, and where most of the people have a simplified understanding of the world and of other cultures. Although trite but true, every day in many parts of Africa brings something interesting to a foreign observer. It’s a large, diverse continent, full of interesting people, and a place that many foreigners miss when they leave… which is why I’m already back here, but this time up North – in the Sudan!
…Ben Moran is a producer based at KJZZ in Phoenix, Arizona. You can hear the other two stories in Ben’s series about relief efforts in Tanzania online at The Public Radio Exchange. That’s where producers from around the world share their work. Log on, write your own reviews, and have a say in what ends up on the radio, at www.prx.org.