We spent almost 3 hours talking this morning to hash out what kind of response we wanted to give Chris and D.A. about a potential return here, and what kind of a trip we think would be feasible/best, and how this fits into the global travel Deerfield thing more broadly. We brainstormed different projects that our students could engage in, talked about how to prepare students for such projects before getting here, discussed some general pieces that would be valua...

The JBFC schedules a trip to the city (Mwanza, pop. 1 million) for most of its guest groups, so we set out in the morning for the market. Half of us rode in the school van (a "dala dala"), which featurerd narrow, shallow seats with very little legroom, no seat belts, and loose attachment to the floor. The trip into Mwanza was really interesting, especially because it was the same road we had traveled on our first night, when I couldn't tell what people were wal...

Well, serves me right for talking about dry, hot weather...the night we got back from our two-day safari, a major thunderstorm kicked up over the lake and the rain was fierce-sounding on the tin roofs of the Big House, where we had dinner, and the Guest House. I loved the sound, and didn't mind the occasional spray across my pillow (remember: no glass in the windows), but I was worried about Ben, who was returning on a Monday overnight ferry from his former PC to...

Days 5 and 6: Safari in the Serengeti Today started early: we were all up and ready for coffee around 6:30am when Vincent, our safari guide/driver/camp-maker/cook, showed up. We left JBFC around 7:30, leaving Ben behind to catch the overnight (12-14 hour) ferry to Bakoba, his former PC town. After a couple hours of driving northeast around Lake Victoria, we came to the town of R/Lamadi, where we stopped in a cafe for breakfast: chai tea from a thermos (black te...

Day 4: Saturday Seminar (it feels more like Day 14, having experienced so much that is new and different this week!) I woke up late, at 8:40, a little worried because our Seminar was scheduled to begin at 9. But we'd been told, and our experience had confirmed, that things happen a lot later here, so we expected that teachers would show up closer to 10, and we headed up to the Big House for breakfast. Things accelerated quickly when someone thought to ask if it...