highlights from the past month and a half

two pictures to start things off with:

this is a sunset Nora and I saw one evening. I told her how the dhows (sailboats) usually sail across the horizon at sunset to make nice pictures for the tourists, but she didn't believe me. At least the birds got the memo that I had brought my camera.

A gas station that had no gas. Nora and my friend Allison are standing there, wondering how we're going to make it to Matemwe to go snorkeling at Mnemba if we're on empty. Luckily, I was able to get a 5L jerry can of gasoline with the help of the snoozing gas station worker a little ways down the road from some guy who happened to have some. I'm not sure why anyone bothered coming to work if there hadn't been gas at the station for a week, but I guess that wasn't his fault-- he gets paid by the hour, not by how many litres he sells!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I only have a few more weeks here in Zanzibar (until the 3rd week of June, with 2 weeks in the US starting May 19th), and have been thinking more and more about how this past year has gone. On the blog front, I haven't kept it up as much as I anticipated. While I suppose it could be viewed as a sign of neglect on my part, I think it's more just a lack of opportunity and is indicative of the amount of time I actually spend on the internet here. It's not the same access as I had in college where I'd check my email in the morning when I woke up, between most classes, before track practice, after dinner, as a study break, and before bed. Here, it's more like 2-3 times a week on average, less for those 3 months when the electricity was out.

So, instead of telling about weekly happenings I find myself trying to recap 1 or 2 months worth of adventures. What have I done since March when I last wrote?

-late March/early April: Nora came to visit!!! We went around Zanzibar, swam with sea turtles (after getting stopped by many many cops and told that I'd have to go to court and pay a big fine over a registration discrepancy), snorkeled at Mnemba Island, went for sunset swims, and shopped around Stone Town, then went to the TZ mainland for a safari at Mikumi National Park. Nora got her first experience on a long-distance bus in Africa, complete with us holding someone else's baby for part of the ride and having a live chicken on board (what other way is there to travel?). I'm so glad she came. Thanks Nupa!

- mid April: LOTS OF WORK on the research project, transcribing and translating the focus group discussions, revising the interview guides for the one-on-one interviews we'll do, getting permission to do interviews at the hospital, getting our interview room at the public hospital set up... many many little things that end up taking a lot of time. I feel like our team has a good dynamic between working on the various projects we have.

-Was a co-quiz master with Dodie and friend Hilda for the monthly Quiz Nite that attracts a mix of Zanzibari and ex-pats. It was very fun and the people seemed to enjoy our cleverness. We had 4 rounds of about 10 questions, with the answers to the questions pointing toward a "meta" answer. For example, if you had the clues "46664, Madiba, Robin, Winnie, ANC, 1918, Nobel Peace Prize" the meta answer would be Nelson Mandela (46664 was his prison #, Madiba his nickname, Robin referencing the island where he spend 27 years in prison, Winnie referencing his wife, ANC his political party, 1918 the year he was born, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize). For this round, one of the questions that didn't make it was "what is the square root of 729?" (answer: 27) I was told it was too hard and people wouldn't get the answer. Really? I'm not so sure it was too hard, but I got the veto anyway. In making the quiz, we all had to realize how relative "general knowledge" can be depending on a person's age, nationality and profession. Most of the quizzes I have attended this year have a fair amount of commonwealth-country related questions, whether it's on history, geography, or those sports that we just don't play in the US (cricket, handball, etc.) Luckily my team has always had at least one commonwealth member, so we've been ok :-)

-I've finished season 3 of The Wire, the only TV-esque thing I have here. I'm looking forward to seasons 4 & 5!

I think those are the highlights.

I will be in the US from May 19th until June 2nd, then will come back to Zanzibar for a few weeks. Then, I'm heading north to Mombasa, Kenya to help teach the Yale Summer Session course there on east African history. I'm greatly looking forward to having a concentrated intellectual engagement with this area after having my own experiences this past year. I'll be in Mombasa until the beginning of August, then will be home until mid-September. Then, it's off to Lille, France for the year to teach English there! I'm excited to go there and try out life on my own with all of those "adult" things like finding an apartment and bank, grocery shopping, having a strictly scheduled job, etc. I'm also sad to leave here, though I suppose it's good to leave with the feeling that I want to come back so I'll have that as an option. Lille's weather is supposed to be similar to London's (ughhhh rain and clouds) so I will surely surely miss these beautiful tropical days, but growing up in Maine should have prepared me to deal with whatever conditions the clouds spit at me.

I'm off to help make dinner and munch on a few Hint of Lime tortilla chips that Alison brought back from the US. These coveted "green dot" chips access a flavor spectrum we just do not have here. They're incredible. I will most definitely be bringing them back with me when I fly back over here in June after my 2 weeks in the US. For sure.

I hope to see many of you in the second-half of May. Let me know if you'll be in the Maine/Boston/NYC area any time between May 19th and June 2nd! I fly into Boston the 19th, then out of NYC the 2nd of June.