I'm going MIA for a few weeks tomorrow. I'll be returning to Mungoni and Zala Park to continue my study on traditional medical practices and medicinal plants for my month long research project. Two (maybe as long as three weeks) in the field, a week or two writing my 30ish page paper. This time, however, I'm planning to go much more in-depth. Hopefully, I'll be able to do case studies of sick or injured villagers: interview them, observe their treatment and follow their recovery. Unless I take an off day and return to Stone Town 45 minutes away, you might not [View Full Entry]

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So I'm writing while on the longest summer break of my life.. 5 months! I'm still in Zanzibar because I'm absolutely, completely in love with it and can't bring myself to leave. I'm also waiting for a friend to be done with a dive course before I head to Malawi.. The last few weeks have been more of discovering the amazing tucked away antique shops of Zanzibar.. as well as an authentic gelato shop! The rainy season started the other day and it's just unimaginable how much rain can come out of the sky. The streets get flooded in five minutes [View Full Entry]

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Whoops! I almost forgot to say.. THANK YOU to all of you for such amazing birthday wishes! I had the best golden birthday anyone could ask for (21 on the 21st) in Zanzibar starting with a tour of many of the ruins of the island, followed by a spice tour where I actually got to taste cinnamon bark and baby starfruit and such. Pretty unique day.. at the last ruins we went to (an intense slave holding chamber made of coral) we then found a hidden swimming cove and I got to swim for a while in a beautiful late afternoon [View Full Entry]

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ZANZIBAR ISLAND So after all the wild animals in the national park, the truck drove us down to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania's busy capital. We were only here though to catch the ferry to Zanzibar one of the Spice Islands off the coast of East Africa in the Indian Ocean. What an absolutely beautiful place and I recommend it to everyone. Stone town is in the South and it's where we spent our first night. With its 19th Century buildings closely packed together forming winding alley ways all through the town its easy to get disorientated- every narrow street leads [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, It's been a while and so so much has happened that I don't think I'll be able to update you on everything, but I'll try! Right after Nairobi, we went to Tsavo East National Park for round two of safari-ing. It was much more lush than the Mara with crazy red dirt and absolutely gorgeous. The elephants here constantly took mud baths and so were always with a reddish tinge--I actually got to see a mud bath maybe.. 30 meters from me. I also started my biodiversity class which is all about herpetology (study of reptiles & amphibians) for [View Full Entry]

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Intricately carved wooden doors, exotic spices, and a stunning mix of architectural styles assault the senses on Zanzibar. Stone Town is a jumble of narrow alleys filled with souvenir shops, old British hotels, impressive museums, funky restaurants, and a busy beach port for the dhows that navigate between the nearby islands. There are people in all manner of colorful dress, interesting and fragrant food stalls, old grand palaces, and too much traffic. The town that was once the home of spice and slave traders, Arab sultans, and Dr. Livingstone is now a busy tourist destination with non-sto [View Full Entry]

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So its Friday afternoon, I'm back in Stone Town after living in the small, rural village of Mungoni for three days earlier this week. Absolutely some of the coolest stuff that I've experienced thus far on my trip. It has made me very happy that I've become an anthropology minor. I apologize in advance for the long post but there aren't many things I can omit from my last few days. Please, if you do have 10 or 15 minutes, read the whole post. Its as long as a book, I know, but I promise its worth it. Recap: I'm wrote [View Full Entry]

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Monday morning, Luc and I caught a bus from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam. It left around six o'clock in the morning and didn't arrive in Dar until around 2pm. Eight hours on the bus across one of Africa's bigger countries was not too comfortable but not one of the worst journeys I have been on during my time in Africa. Luc found it very hard despite the fact she was asleep for the majority of it. Upon arriving in Dar we were greeted by lots and lots of taxi drivers all offering the "many cheapest price" to the ferry for [View Full Entry]

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So four days at Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Forest full of Colobus monkeys, mangroves, bird watching, camping, and no showers. Jozani is a large, conservation area (hence its national park status) with high biodiversity of plants and animals due to its many ecosystems (bodies of fresh water, salty water, intertidal areas, swamps, forests, ect). We've slowly been exploring more of it, each day a new adventure. One day we went on an early morning bird watch, another we did field work counting and measuring mangroves for Jozani's research, and a couple days we went on walks to watch/study/laugh at [View Full Entry]

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This post is long overdue. Shoutout to the biggest of the big dogs, Sandy "finally got me some bigass hoops" Plante aka SPROUT!!! Sorry we didn't get to talk today bro. Next week???? Also Mama Bear and Papa Bear also get a shoutout for allowing me to leave their nest and fly away. But like a good birdy, they know I'll fly back. Possibly the most loyal of my blog minons, Grandma and Grandpa, get a bigtime shoutout and if they didn't know what a shoutout was before, they do now. WHAT UP MAINE!!!! A big "whudup" also goes to the [View Full Entry]

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