Today we have a little down time in Stone Town, which is nice. Yesterday we went to Chumbe Island, which is pretty much a little piece of heaven. The coral reef is a marine protected area, and it is one of the few in Zanzibar where public access is totally restricted. The snorkeling was by far the best we've done so far - we actually saw big fish because they've had time to develop without being threatened by fishermen. The colors of the fish were incredible - beautiful greens, purples, and blues. The coral too is vibrantly colored and healthy. We snorkeled for a couple of hours there and explored the rest of the island. The marine park is funded by an ecotourism project on the island, which is basically 7 eco-bungalows. The bungalows don't have windows or doors, even on the bathroom. The little power comes from solar panels, and the water for the shower and sink is rain water collected under the bungalow. The toilet doesn't flush, but is a compost toilet which turns human waste into fertilizer using compost from biodegradable food waste from the island. It's a great project, and they also provide free environmental education classes for local children, who have no other exposure to such topics. They take them snorkeling but almost none of the kids can swim, and the girls are completely covered from head to toe, which makes for restricted swimming.

Over the next couple of days we'll be working on our mini ISP, a two day project in which we get familiar with what we'll be doing for the month at the end of the program, including the living on 16 dollars a day. It should be interesting - I'm hoping to go back to Zala Park, which we visited earlier in the semester and has reptiles and other cool stuff.