I.S.P. to N.O.W.

Today is Friday, April 27^th. In exactly one week, the program is over. It seems unnecessary to talk about how overwhelming that feels. I think it's probably well understood. Everyone feels the pull and passing of time well, I think. However, it has made me sad. But it has also made the days very sweet now.

Monday is the end of ISP period. That means (in theory) we will have all completed our ISP reports, have done our presentations and completed our last kiswahili exam. Hopefully all will go as planned. After that we have a few last days to be together. The plan, I think, is eating again at Archipelago as we did the first night in Zanzibar, going to Mangapwani beach, visiting friends and celebrating the last few birthdays, and trying to capture all the things we have learned and gotten to love here on this island.

We, meaning Sal and I (because we did our project together), spend the first half of ISP at Jozani NP with Erica. We collected our data and led a simple and pleasant life. 

There was excitement in there, too. This included being chased by cows, jumping on what we thought was a daladala but was actually a van full of a boys soccer team, and taking pictures with random tourists at the park.

using the "internet log"

The second half of ISP was at the Paje “mansion.” I put that in quotes not because it is not a mansion, but rather because that's not necessarily its name. It IS in fact a mansion right along the beach on the east side of the island. We stayed there for a good chunk of time. Again life was simple. But it was also more luxurious. Two stories of a beautiful, open house. Two stories of comfortable couches and beds and the sound of the ocean. 

Thankful for this - but note that the plant in the pot on the left is highly invasive

We got to cook all together which may have been the best part. We made pizza and some traditional dishes. We made a lot of pastas and breads and soups. 

Friends

We swam every day and I ran on the beach according to the tides. At low tide, the women would farm and harvest seaweed and at high tide few people would be swimming. We finished our report (for the most part) during this time. I liked Paje mansion, but experiencing Paje includes indulging in tourism... there is little way to avoid it. I do not necessarily feel guilty for staying there, but I did not want to stay there much longer. As Sal says, “we always come back to Stonetown.”

The thought of going home soon makes that sentence more meaningful and conclusive.

We are back in Stonetown and it feels good. Sal and I are staying with my homestay family and I really couldn't be happier. I feel like I am taking everything I can before I go – well, in terms of thoughts and moments and kiswahili and conversations. They really are a fantastic and hospitable family. This morning, we had a 2½ hr breakfast. We (meaning nearly everyone because my brothers and sisters just finished exams and don't have school right now) spent the time translating all food – fruit, veggies, spices and names of traditional dishes. For breakfast we made Mama Moza's amazing chai with chila (traditional sweet rice bread), avocado and banana from “downstairs”). Last night Sal and I went shopping and bought ingredients to make dinner for the family. We made a peanut sauce spaghetti dish. They loved it. Or so they said. Mmmm – food and laughing and humor from improper translations...

Besides that, I'm walking around Stonetown a lot. It has been mostly cloudy lately and that makes it much more pleasurable. (please note that this “heavy rain season” that is now, it nothing like it usually is – hardly half the rain they usually get). I do miss the ocean here but it's more than a treat to be able to walk around and say hi to more than 5 people you know well every time and see the same faces. I get sad at night now. But I'm letting myself. Because soon it will be boats and buses, planes carrying luggage. It will be people without smiles and loud voices from people I don't know. I may now have a new definition of an extended family, or family in general. Family is actually, here in Zanzibar. Just like Love actually is all around (get the reference?). My hope for this trip was to connect with people to this point of sadness I am experiencing now. So I am sad. But I am also grateful.

I need to remind myself, however, that I must not romanticize all aspects of Zanzibar by turning my feels of love and appreciation to feelings of complete understanding and an disillusioned perfection. There are still these things in Zanzibar that leave me unhappy, uncomfortable, sick, or frustrated – those things I want to fix but can't, those things I will try to continue to learn about when I go home.

I notice when my mind switches back to scheduling and plans and trips and hard movements. On May 4^th this program ends. On May 6^th I begin my climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro. On May 12^th I return to the base. On May 13^th I fly to South Africa to meet mom and dad. On May 28^th I fly home to Pennsylvania. On June 8^th I drive up to Vermont. Here I begin my capstone internship, withdraw money, pay rent, make money, cook, and try to bike and not drive as much as I can.

It's how my life works. But I think I will work a little differently now. I anticipate it being slightly frustrating trying to communicate my experience, at times. But I feel lucky to be able to share my experience with so many people I know and love. Yeah, that's it. This trip has made me feel lucky. And a bit proud? Proud. Proud in the sense that there were personal struggles and I got through them. Proud that I learned. But not proud in all aspects or every time. Recognition that I'm learning. Always.

I am learning.

This week includes another reoccurring thought:

happy birthday!

to my dearest Granny

to my greatest companion and friend, Katie

and to my most

magnificent

mother.

Appreciation

 Today a few of us here in Paje went on search of internet – a common search. We found a place where we could sit outside on the beach and check our email. A woman (another mzungu) decided to tell about how “fucking crazy” it was that we were sitting in this beautiful place and all four of us were on our computers. I didn't disagree. She was right but I did feel slightly intruded. After leaving, Sal leaned in and said that yes, this place is amazing, but it's not the most spectacular thing in the world. She was saying that of all the places she knows, this isn't the one that calls her in, the mountains are. I agreed. I looked at her and said,

“we're mountain girls.”

After arriving back home, I quickly changed to get a run in before the day came to a close. I ran a few feet from the house to get to the beach. I left just after 6 and as I continued the sun began to set. The whole world seemed to shift in a minute and soon the colors took to a pastel that I have never experienced. The change was awesome – literally... awe-some. It was bright and rich and vivid and soft.

I thought suddenly back my exchange with Sal. It seemed as though this place was reminding me of something. A sentence or words don't necessary derive directly from thoughts. To say something is easy and quick. But once something is said, it can derive your thoughts. Spoken words can linger and a subconscious, unacknowledged train of thought can occur. I know the world was simply doing it's thing – the sun was setting, but I felt like it was proving something – teaching me something. I need to be aware of the things I say because after they're spoken, new things are perceived. I think at that moment I under-appreciated the beauty of this place because my own voice told me that the mountains are my home.

I was reminded that it's a gift to be here. And as the sun set on the opposite side of the island it drew a rich yellow. Pinks and oranges were cast to the other side of the sky on top of the ocean, turning trees to dark silhouettes. 

At that moment it felt sort of like something lifted up off my shoulders and I saw all the people on the beach – the families searching for shells to sell, the tourists exercising and walking with their partners, the swahili boys playing soccer. The place took on a new type of spectacular.

I appreciated it right then as the most beautiful place on earth.  

some little bits

Water buffalo with their hilariously good sense of smell

Fish Market in DAR - sharpening knives

Traffic in DAR

Roy as a Maasai 

At Mikumi

Lioness

I sit now

I think and I recognize

Life

With energy and reaction

And with absence

Sensing now

Beauty

When I see a moment

I reflect

With thought of where it came from

Creation

How it is

Goodness

And then I think

Why

I feel a pull

I notice a web

Going heavy then going light

Seeing and then closing

My eyes

There is always an end

That makes life

Truth

Hidden, then illuminated

I move on

I return

Presence and absence

Like the cub

And the kill

Of a lioness

Time passing, time full

Jozani and Matt Richmond

Lots of travel and movement means less computer time (well, no computer time), which I'm completely fine with. Nonetheless, my apologies for finding better things to do. We have been a busy group of bees! Since Chumbe Island trip, well, LOTS has happened. A sequence of things:

• We traveled to Jozani National Park/Forest
• We came back to Stonetown and had two days with Matt Richmond (marine ecology prof)
• Some of us went back to Jozani and did our portfolio project
• We came to Stonetown (home-base yet again) and prepared our ISP (independent study project) proposals
• We traveled to Dar es Salaam for 10 days (with 2 more Matt R. days)
• We went to Mikumi National Park (wildlife)
• Now we are transitioning in Stonetown doing school things before...... ISP's!

Internet was just too hard to come by in many places. I anticipated writing in Dar es Salaam. Now, procrastination at its best, I am trying to write this blog post before heading back to Jozani to start ISP while we are also taking an exam, writing up projects, and giving presentations. Ah, well.

Arriving in Jozani NP was fun. We drove past the Butterfly Center and were heading the same way we were when we went to Paje at the very beginning of the semester. I remember it felt odd when I realized that we now have things to recognize and memories to think back on from Zanzibar. Arriving in Jozani felt more like home than any other arrival. The trees were tall and abundant. There is a small ranger station there with an office, a “cafe” and a few tables for tourists to sit and relax under – maybe drink a pop. We all stayed in the guest house which is just down the road. We did transect plots of three different mangroves ecosystems and a transect walk looking for and identifying mammal presence and evidence. The bush piggy! At Jozani, there is an endemic population, well, or many things, but one is of the Red Colobus monkey. They have a heavy impact on the surrounding environment there and I'll explain that during my ISP entries. We ate really yummy food cooked by Pili and drove to the different sites by way of a trunk... one truck. There were 16 of us in this small pick-up truck. Driving fast. Lots of exhaust smoke. Locals staring... “who are those mzungu in that truck?” they probably thought (in kiswahili). Apart from my first real bout of travelers “illness,” it was a fun and uncomplicated time.

I went running alongside the pickup truck from time to time and then also in the woods. As you walk on the trails there – the ecosystem changes and shifts, completely transforming. One moment I was running under the light and beautiful canopy of hundreds of planted Red Mahogany trees and the next moment, I was swallowed by an invasive palm, running back in time through the Jurassic period – conscious not to step on large snails, startle a wild piggy (BUSH PIGGY!), or start to sense the smell of mangoes (for this is a scent produced by a python in attempt to attract prey).

[At Jozani - at the end of the animal transect walk]

Back in Stonetown, we had a few days with Matt Richmond learning about the marine ecosystem and experiencing it first hand as we made plots and went snorkeling and manatowing (pulled behind by boat to see the reefs quickly – real fun!). I will also include here two or our days with Matt R. in DAR because they overlap as experiences. In Stonetown we did square plots on Pange intertidal pools and a large circular plot on the reefs of Bawe (along with swimming along a long transect line perpendicular to the shore to see the zonation change). In DAR, we went first to Mbudya Island. Here, in our coral reef groups of 4, we followed a 100m transect from the shore to the reef drop off. We saw so many species. We played on the island, did weird jumps and flips off the boat, swam swam swam, ate fish and chips for lunch (fish caught that morning), and got very burned. Oops. The second trip from DAR was to Sinda Island. This was a HOT day. We were in direct mid-day sunlight for 3 straight hours. We walked around the island and once we arrive to a particular location, we constructed 4 plots per coral reef group and did urchin counts and then collection (which we later dumped into the deep part of the ocean on the way back – hmmm?). That was cool. There were 2 species of urchins there. We picked up the non-poisonous ones but we had to be careful. After being overstuffed by Mwalimu Said with a huge picnic, we went back to shore and took a quiz and drank a beer. A great combination. We all had headaches that night. I think this was attributed to three things: 1. the sun 2. drinking beer when we should have been chugging water, and 3. the travel – which was bus, ferry, bus each way (crazy and crowded).

[Storm over Mbudya Island - our destination]

[dumping the urchins on the way back from Sinda Island]

I remember some of the cool things I saw: weird cucumbers, a starfish with its' stomach exposed feeding on algae, hundreds (literally) of eels hiding behind coral, multiple lionfish (cool lookin'! Look them up – p.s. they're poisonous, as many things in the ocean are), thousands of urchins, many adorable triggerfish as juveniles, a huge grouper, more stingrays, so many weird, weird invertebrates in general, large stretches of seagrass beds, coral reefs that are bright and beautiful and coral reefs that were damaged by illegal fishing practices (such as spear fishing, dynamite, poison, or illegal net sizes) or by irresponsible tourists. The ocean is such a sensitive and such a complex place. I get unusually nervous when I snorkel and am close to these foreign animals in this odd medium. I definitely feel vulnerable. Sometimes I have to remind myself to breath when we see something especially amazing.

After this was porfolio time. The purpose is to help us all figure out what we want to do for our Independent Study Projects (ISPs). There was a group of 6 of us that, at the time, thought we would all want to do it in Jozani NP. Now, many people have changed their ideas. I feel pretty lucky that I have picked a topic that I'm really excited about and am also doing for my ISP. This means I have a head start. I am working with Sal. She's awesome – from Oberlin and a weirdo like me. We had a great time in the woods laughing at weird things in nature (still one of my favorite things to do). We did work, too! Promise. Our topic is this:

Stress Factors that are killing the Indian Almond Tree (Terminalia catappa); A case study in Jozania National Park, Unguja, Zanzibar

This is what we did over portfolio – basically did plots and looked for all possible causes, kind of like as if we were detectives – snapping pictures and writing down things like, “spots and squiggles on the bark.” Not to worry, during ISP we plan on taking these things to a lab and getting them identified. But you never know what your resources will be here in Zanzibar.

So, for ISP, we're going to continue this study. In addition to truly figuring out what is killing the trees (as off now we believe it is a combination of the huge stress of the Red Colobus, because the IA tree is their favorite food sources, and then the vulnerability to other insects, fungi and disease). We are going to also create an native species enrichment planting plan that will make their forests in the shamba/farm areas more resilient to stresses of the future (for example, climate change, a change in the underground water table, and likely increase in the number of monkeys... and the number of people).

We're excited. Very excited. And we leave for ISP... tomorrow (4/2)

Dar es Salaam

We finally got to experience the mainland, Tanzania. We were prepared, “it's dangerous. It's hot. It's crowded (pop 4 mill). It's more Christian, less Muslim. It's smelly.” It was all those things. We got to wear shorts/dresses/skirts above our knees and sleeveless things – gasp! This was necessary, thought, because it was SO. HOT. Then I got my second bout of sickness – a 7 day long period of weakness and dizziness and... stuff like that. I reluctantly took medicine when it didn't get better. The first section of our trip was 4 hours a day of lectures from local professors. We went to the cafeteria every day for subsidized food (so good and cheap – about 70 american cents for a large plate of rice and beans and veggies)! The lectures were usually good, not always. It made me miss school to be on a campus. The University of DAR has a beautiful campus, though! There were large trees and hills.... and PEERS! Once again, we had peers! It was fun to see all the students walking around. It costs about $1,000 (usd) to go to U or Dar for a year. How's that for a contrast? The first half of our Dar trip consisted of all the lectures and the second half was field trips. We had a day off and went into the city which was an experience. It was a Sunday and everything was closed! We went somewhere and treated ourselves to a banana split. Good dessert is hard to come by in Zanzibar. Getting to the city was the crazy part. We had to figure out all the connecting dala dalas. It took us 2 hours to get to “posta” - the center of town. The actual ride was only 20 minutes. Trying to get on the ride dala dala consisted of watching people literally push and shove (small children included) to get a spot, crossing the crazy and unorganized highway-like road and being laughed at – never ends! Phew! It was a good adventure because we did it.

[University of Dar es Salaam campus]

Mikumi

Lastly, we had a bit of “spring break,” you might say, before heading back to Stonetown. That is now. Mikumi was more than amazing. The big, wild animals, the great food, the relaxation, the water pressure – all of it! We saw....

Animals: elephants, giraffe, hippos, crocodile, zebra, water buffalo, a mother lion and her cub, mpala, wildebeest, eland, baboons, warthog, and the marabou stork (ha!), along with many other beautiful birds.

Plants: really cool acacia (with a very different browse line – one of a giraffe) and a 1,000.....1,000 year old baobab!!!!!!!!!!

[The Baobab tree - 1,000 years plus]

It was all amazing. From the first time, to the last time, seeing the animals was wild and humbling. I have never seen anything like that in the wild. We had two days there. We were escorted by a masaai between our cabins and the dinning area at night in case there was a nearby animal. We couldn't run, or stray far at all for that matter. We did our safaris very early and just before dinner. The light was so beautiful. I liked it best when we were quiet. At times I didn't feel safe. At times I felt more safe than I have in 3 months – no people, vehicles or overall craziness. Spectacular. From the first time, to the last time, seeing the animals was wild and humbling. I missed my family, though (and also got very excited for my trip to Mt. Kili and South Africa).

Until then - love!