Several days ago, I experienced “culture shock” in a way I never expected. Shortly after arriving in Dar from Zanzibar, myself and Powell, another Fulbrighter living in Dar, wandered into one of the many supermarkets to pick up a few things. Within minutes of entering the store, I was completely overtaken by confusion and shock. … Continue reading
Category Archives: Tanzania
Wanderings
What To Do When You Find Yourself Stranded in the Middle of Nowhere…and Other Stories
It is hard to believe that I have already been in Zanzibar three weeks. I think back to the first day I arrived here, how confused and lethargic I was after traveling for two days, and how my first week here felt like an eternity as I adjusted to my new surroundings. I can now … Continue reading
Photo Journal
Stone Town Sunset An African Breakfast My Cozy Apartment Zanzibar Butterfly Center Red Colobus Monkeys near Jozani Forest Continue reading
Nungwi
This past weekend I traveled up to Nungwi, an idyllic and quaint fishing village on the northern coast of Zanzibar. Rather than paying excessive amounts for a private taxi, I opted to use a dala dala (Tanzania’s version of a public bus, minus a schedule or seating capacity). I walked to the public market, which … Continue reading
Scorecard
While my overall experience in Zanzibar over the past week has been great, there are a few, shall we say, “challenges”, that I face here on a daily basis. I anticipated the majority of these prior to arriving here, and as such, they have not really detracted from my experience here thus far. I thought … Continue reading
TIA and Swahili Class with Mwalimu Omar
TIA – This is Africa. This is a handy acronym for describing things that happen on a day-to-day basis here that, well, don’t quite make sense anywhere else. Nonetheless, as a visitor it is up to me to find a way for these things to make sense, even when it seems like there is no … Continue reading
Karibu Zanzibar
I thought an apt title for my first blog post would be a phrase I hear more than 10 times a day. While walking through the labyrinth that is Stone Town, I hear “Karibu Zanzibar” from every direction. The phrase means welcome to Zanzibar in Swahili. While this phrase epitomizes the friendliness of the Zanzibari … Continue reading
Life at RVCV (The Rift Valley Children’s Village)
My long awaited post, and only a couple weeks late! Long is a bit of an understatement as you shall soon see. For those of you who are totally confused (“wait, isn’t she in Amman now”) you’re right. I am in Jordan but wanted to write a more detailed post about my time at the … Continue reading
Lions, and Leopards, and Cheetahs, oh my!- Final Days of Safari
Up until we arrived at the Serengeti the day we left Ndutu, we had seen all of the animals I was hoping to see, with the exception of one rather “large” category: the big cats. Sure enough, within several minutes of arriving at the Serengeti, we saw a caravan of land rovers circled around a … Continue reading
wanderings 