20 June We left our hotel on the beach in Kendwe at 10:30, arriving at the ferry terminal in Stone Town just before noon. Since we had nearly an hour before our ferry was to depart, I went into town to buy a sandwich to eat for lunch on the ferry. In fact, though, the 2 hour ferry ride was so rough that I didn't get a chance to eat on the boat. ...

Well I have returned for Zanzibar and am staying the night at Karen's house before I continue on to Zambia. Victoria Falls here I come. Zanzibar was good but a little bit frustrating. Let me start with the frustrating. There is a whole poplulation of men from 20 to 30 who's job is to make money off of tourists. I swear half of them don't do anyt...

Sorry for not posting in so long to those who actually like reading my blog. So much and so little have happened. I don't know how to explain it but it's just the way it is. Nothing really bad happened to me so I'm still alive and kickin'. I read Sarah's blog and it was so funny. I recommend you all read it for kicks and a different aspect of th...

Dar es Salaam Again 14th - 16th December 2006 Thursday 14th We packed up (a mammoth task involving sweat, dust and exhaustion), paid (the bills were efficiently itemized), and waited for a ride back to Tanga. Nothing drove by for an hour and the owner's brother-in-law, a bitter twisted old man, reluctantly loaded us in and drove his Land Rover l...

Except it isn't really; Dar (es Salaam) is neither exotic nor wild - at best you could call it functional. Staying in the Arab quarter, we probably have the best of the sights within easy walking distance; the remains of the colonial streets, the forgotten botanical gardens, the lively fish market. Generally the streets are quiet with the donati...

Got up this morning, and splash! The water went out last night at like 12:30 and we tried to turn the faucets all the way off so it wouldn't flood... well guess what? My roommate turned it the wrong way and it was on full blast, so it flooded the bathroom. Turns out another student did the same thing and it flooded his whole living room.. stupid...

My Kiswahili skillz need improvement as pointed out to me several times by people in the lab. Mosquitoes in the lab ahh! Hope I don't get bit. A guy in my friend's lab was out today for malaria, as was a guy in my lab also has malaria too. He came into work though, I asked him how are you? And he said "fine, except for the malaria" Another girl ...

Add in that camp site was ****** and ferry ride to Zamzibar Mention nutty traffic and ride to ferry port

Mambo, I'minAfricaI'minAfricaI'minAfricaI'minA fricaI'minAfrica. I'm doing very well here in the Motherland these days. I've been loving my life lately. Where to begin, ok, I'm not in the orphanage these days, thats pretty big news. The trip there was over an hour and required a bike taxi, 2 dalla-dallas, and a 15 minute walk, and thats only one...

Our first lesson was that when coordinating an airport pickup from Philly, we were thinking in western time, whereas our driver was thinking in Swahili time. biiiig difference. (We said we were landing at 3 , which in swahili time was 9 am. This is helpful Knowing swahili was a huge help, because once we arrived and our driver was no where to be...