tylerplante

"Hooray he's alive!!!" I know most of you are saying that right now. Its been seemingly forever since I last posted here. "Oh darn, he was better off missing" is what my enemies are saying right now, dissappointed to hear that I have, in fact, survived my three weeks in Muungoni, Zanzibar and month long research project. But I am alive, I swear. Also, I have no idea why my enemies would read my blog. Ok, so studying traditional medical practices and medicinal plants in Muungoni was, in short, awesome. Learned so much, not only about my project but just about life elsewhere. Even though three weeks went by so fast (way too fast), it really opened my eyes to a lot of different aspects about Zanzibar. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you are an enemy of ... read more

A couple misc notes. First, a word to the seniors (and the super-super seniors) at F&M, fear not, I think I'll be at your graduation. I'll be the one with a box of tissues, balling my eyes out. Second, a shoutout to Eagles Nest, I miss everybody a ton. Glad to hear you are enjoying the blog and hopefully you are learning some stuff. I hope all the 5th graders are having a great spring and excited about Middle School. I hope everybody is still loving Eagles Nest and telling Janelle and the volunteers how awesome and fantabulous they are each and every week. And to all the kids, I hope Fulton ES is still treating you right, finish the school year strong!! Also, I apologies for any bad words I might have written. My bad. ... read more

I'm staying with another student in Muungoni, though we're studying different things here. Maggie is studying birds on a nearby island, (appropriately named Bird Island) which is a pretty cool project. Every morning, hundreds (maybe thousands) of birds leave this mangrove island in the middle of this large river and every night, they return. So she goes out there in the morning and in the evening to observe the different species, watch their activity, and count their numbers. I've gone with her twice now, seen lotsa birds and two beautiful sunsets over the island and river. On Thursday, we decided to canoe downstream to the island, maybe a mile away. We left at maybe 5pm, arrived by 5:30, and drifted around watching roosting birds in the mangroves until 6 when most of the flocks started to ... read more

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 get any posts. But it's alright, know that I'm doing what I love. For my last day in Stone Town, I'm going to the beach. Take care everybody and I'll see you in a little ... read more

I'm going to tell you about my day on Thursday, rarely here have I had such an awful day. It's all very sad because I know other people probabaly had great days, being on spring break and such. It started at 5:45 when my alarm went off and I dragged my tired ass out of bed. After breakfast, as the sun was still just rising, we were herded onto a cramped bus for a 45 minute drive. I expected we were going some place awesome, but apparently not. When I got off, I realized we were at the beach - absolutely the last place I wanted to be. After we meet up with a local ecologist/professor, we took boats to a nearby island that certainly didn't have translucent, turquoise water, beautiful white beaches, flourishing coral reefs, ... read more

Hi again, posting again en masse. Internet here in Dar is surprisingly scarce and so I write up my blogs on my computer and then us my flash disk to post them when I get webnet power at internet cafes. So I'm here in Dar Es Salaam and it just has not been what I expected. This seems to be a common theme on my trip. I didn't expect a complete lack of a touristy downtown area. I didn't expect the DC-esque rush hour traffic. I didn't expect that Dar and its reputation of a modern city would look a dirty, dangerous, disorganized city struggling to provide basic services to an impoverished and growing population I know it sounds stupid for me to think otherwise, but honestly. I expected Dar to be a much nicer city, ... read more

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 a 5ish-page cultural study paper on the local medical practices in Mungoni, how they use medical plants, and how they treat sicknesses and injuries. Medicines and health have never been of real interest to me ... read more