Tanzania has so much going for it - natural beauty, friendly people, and and an ideal location. It is consistently overshadowed by its more prosperous and well-known neighbor, Kenya, but in many ways it supersedes Kenya because of its relative peacefulness. Nevertheless, as past entries have shown, there is a lot to improve in Tanzania that would make it a much better place for tourists looking for nature and a taste of Africa. (1) Improve roads and other transportation to make it easier for people to get into and around the country. Additionally, it would facilitate healthcare improvements [View Full Entry]

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And then there were eight. As the last entry left off, three members of our group departed in Arusha. So only eight of us took the 10 hour bus journey home to Dar es Salaam. We took the nice bus, Royal Coach, and were treated to three magnificent movies (please note the sarcasm): Mr. Bean, Mr. Bones, and Universal Soldier III. No, we did not see I or II, but the third part of a trilogy is always a good movie to watch on a long bus ride. Mr. Bean was by far the best movie in the group. Mr. Bones [View Full Entry]

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It took me awhile, but I discovered why I didn't like Arusha. Don't get me wrong - it's a very nice city, especially for tourists. However, Arusha seemed too Western for me. At night, the streets are lit by street lamps. 10 minutes from the center of town looks like a leafy-green suburb. There are some things that scream "Tanzania" like the main market and the horrendous driving skills, but in general I found the city unsettling. An excuse for this may be the presence of a large United Nations contingent. The United Nations is in Arusha for the sole purpose [View Full Entry]

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We left early in the morning on Saturday for Serengeti National Park, the usual place to which people go for Tanzanian safaris. Entering the park was the hardest part because we needed to register our cars (you buy passes in advance) and they are registered with a credit card. But wait! The credit card card machine didn't work. So the whole process took a little bit longer than it should have. Then we went into the park. Upon entering the Serengeti, we arrived in Zebraland. We literally just saw zebra after zebra after zebra. Then we entered Gazelleland, then Impalaland. Impalaland [View Full Entry]

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Today is my last day in Mwanza. It's a little sad because I have really felt at home this past three weeks here. But I AM ready for my summer to begin...which it has! Classes are all finished, tests have all been taken, and papers have all been written. I therefore will finally embark upon my summer relaxing trip with a voyage through the Serengeti and around the northern circuit of Tanzania. I cannot tell you how excited I am. Anyway, yesterday I went into town with Caitlin, Ashley Y, and Pulchery. We did some last-minute gift-shopping and purchased some snack [View Full Entry]

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We had a few hours to kill in Kigoma because it was too early for dinner and few people wanted to go to Ujiji to see where Stanley met Livingstone. We therefore went to the central market. I was expecting something similar to Mwanza. After all, Kigoma's 30,000 people are as strategically placfed as Mwanza's 500,000. Just joking, but I thought Kigoma would have a smaller version of Mwanza's market. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Kigoma's market, in my opinon, is a real stereotypical "African" market. Kigoma Central Market is a cramped space, less than a quarter of an [View Full Entry]

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Monday was a blast! We woke up early, ate a quick breakfast, then drove down to the place from which we would get the boat to Gombe Stream National Park. We got there rather early but had to wait for some men to "fix" the boat and buy petrol. We therefore returned to town to purchase a few provisions that we still needed. Our boat was just big enough for all 8 of us. The ride took just under two hours and we got to see some amazing things. Lake Tanganyika is crystal clear and gets deep quickly. As we left [View Full Entry]

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I've never been car sick before, but the 12 hour journey (13.5 if you count the hour and a half waiting for the ferry) to Kigoma certainly brought me close. I woke up at 5 in the morning (that was 10 in the evening on the East Coast) so that I could get some breakfast and finish the last-minute packing. All went fairly smoothly, especially given the fact that there was no running water! We intended to leave by 6 but were a couple of minutes late. For the fun (and long) trip, we had a 9-person Toyota Land Cruiser. I [View Full Entry]

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These past few days have flown by! On Thursday, we got our first lecture on agrobiodiversity, a fancy term that basically refers to the way farmers interact with the land and all of the plants on it. This encompasses not only foodstuff but also soil-enriching trees, grasses for thatching, etc. It's a fairly fascinating subject; too bad that we don't really get to spend time on it because of our busy schedule. On Friday we walked about an hour to see some farms and agrobiodiversity in action. It's much more amazing when you actually see it. I was impressed with the [View Full Entry]

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We went to go see the Saa Nane (8:00, or maybe 2:00 if it was read in Swahili time) Museum on Wednesday afternoon. The Lonely Planet Guidebook describes it as a place of weird and quirky things. Basically, a guy with a foot fetish started a museum dedicated to the feet of all creatures, from humans to...well, we don't really know. We (Ryan, Ashley Burns, and I) located it on the map and walked towards it. We finally arrived at the place where the museum should have been, but there wasn't really a sign to the museum. We enter the grounds [View Full Entry]

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