The past week has been packed with power outages and new experiences. We probably only have power for 3-4 hours a day at Jane's house, and so these precious hours are definitely cherished if you're lucky enough to be at home for them. We have 2 researchers from Georgia and one of their daughters staying with us at Jane's house, and so it has been fun to spend some time with other North Americans who know Dar Es Salaam well. One of them has spent quit...

Today was a very full, but exciting day! One of the local Roots and Shoots staff took us to a city called Morogoro about 3 hours away to visit a conservation site there that the Roots and Shoots club started. It was awesome. First of all, there was some miscommunication and so the driver of the Roots and Shoots vehicle came to pick us up at 6am instead of 7am. Of course I wasn't awake yet, so I had to rush to get ready. On the way there, the Roots and Sh...

I am a student of swahili. Swahili classes are going well - and we are going at an extremely quick pace. I already know all of the numbers, all sorts of verb conjugations, and about 25 verbs. Today Mama J, our teacher, said that we were ripening. I have a really wonderful group of fellow students that include 4 from Canada, so it's nice to have some white and red spirit! Our classes are held at a rich point of the coast that is only used by tourists called slip...

Just wanted to quickly upload a picture of the ocean from my balcony to make you all jealous! Today went to swahili class - to the Jane Goodall Institute office to meet people - and then to an awesome beach bar about a 5 minute walk down the coast from Jane's house which is beautiful. Also had my first few experiences on a bijaji - google it. It was exciting and scary at the same time. Mostly exciting.

Well - I made it! After 30 hours of travel, 4 take-offs, 4 landings, and 7 time zones, I finally made it to Tanzania. Everything went perfectly with my flights, I couldn't have asked for anything more. I had the exciting experience of sitting beside a big Kenyan momma from Zurich to Kenya - this meant she constantly held my arm, slept on me, talked to me in Swahili and broken English, and woke me up while I was sleeping to tell me that she doesn't like flying. ...