Mambo! We're back in Stone Town, but leaving again tomorrow. The mainland was cool, but it felt good coming home to Zanzibar. Dar es Salaam is a crazy place. It's poverty mixed with Western things like fast food restaurants and a mall! The city is a mess due to lack of planning and rapid population growth, but it was cool to see. We spent a week going to lectures at the University of Dar, which was a lot like a university in the States, except with gross bathrooms. They fed us so much food - three course meals every day for lunch! We spent two days getting the "real Dar experience" staying in a hotel that was more in the city but that was kind of a flop since we were totally disoriented and it isn't all that safe to go trekking around the city at night looking for restaurants. We went snorkeling for two days with the fabulous Matt Richmond, author of our textbook and all-around badass. We got to manta-tow, which is the coolest experience ever. A boat drives along and you basically just hold on to a board on a rope attached to the boat and use it to dive underwater. It was like gillyweed in Harry Potter - you just fly along underwater checking out all the cool stuff. So much fun. We also saw some awesome creatures - lots of eels, fish, sea urchins, jellyfish (we all got stung), a sting ray, puffer fish, sea cucumbers (some of which ejaculate when you shake them, producing a weird really sticky white substance which is fun to play with), and even an octopus. Sweet life. Also, during our 17-question "quiz" at the end of our time with Matt Richmond, he bought us all beers. Coolest professor ever/best test ever (on the beach, with a beer, reggae music in the background - jealous?)

Then safari!! So cool. That may be my favorite part of the trip so far. We stayed in a pretty nice tourist lodge in our own little houses right in the park, and the restaurant was right next to a watering hole. During our first meal buffalo and zebras were drinking less than 100 feet from us. We went on four game drives and saw giraffes, baboons, zebras, impala, elephants, buffalo, birds, hippos, crocodiles, a jackal, and a lion! He was sleeping under a tree right next to the road and we woke him up and got to see him shake his mane around and walk away. At night some people woke up to the sound of lions roaring. I could have stayed a lot longer there.

While we were staying in Dar we also got to do yoga! There is a man near the city who came here as a spiritual missionary, opened an orphanage and a school and teaches yoga classes! He greeted us in orange outfits that looked very monk-ish. The yoga session was a much needed relaxation time, and everyone did it including the boys and our academic director.

Back in Stone Town, we've mostly been taking it easy. Last night we went out to a club that played a Soulja Boy song! We danced a ton with the crazy strobe lights and mix of weird choices of American music (move bitch by Ludacris and California Love?) and Swahili music. Tonight we're going to a Swahili music concert at the Old Fort in town.

Tomorrow we leave for Pemba! Pemba is Zanzibar's sister island and is supposed to be much more rural. Some huge portion of the world's cloves were produced there not too long ago, and the island is also well known for its essential oil production. We're going straight into homestays, which should be a little rougher than those in town. I'm excited about it. Anyway, more later, send me emails!

Happy Siku kuu! Eid is here... finally. On the dala dala back from Zala Park today I saw kids eating lollipops on the street, people eating and drinking from water bottles. What a relief. The most exciting thing was music playing everywhere. It's all very refreshing after a month of going without. I couldn't wait to ditch the headscarf.

I spent yesterday in Zala Park, just outside of Jozani forest. I got a one-on-one explanation of the animals with my now-bff, Ramadhan. He let me hold all the snakes and lizards and turtles (including one terrapin- yay Maryland), and told me about their diet and habitats and how they come to have them at the park. They put me up in a small guesthouse with no electricity and fed me lunch (rice and chuzi - a fish dish with tomato sauce and potatoes), dinner ("pancakes," chai, and chuzi), and breakfast (bread, cake, cookies, chai and chuzi). This morning when I didn't want fish for breakfast, Ramadhan proclaimed "You eat so little! Does chuzi hurt your stomach?"

Ramadhan hung out with me in the house for most of the day when we weren't checking out the animals or going on a nature walk. He asked me whether I like to vote, and he wanted to talk American politics. It's interesting that here in Zanibar, far away from the US, many people know more about the American election and candidates than many Americans do. Most Zanzibaris are Obama supporters, and are eager to talk about him with Americans.

The dala dala ride back to Stone Town was interesting. I got to sit in the front, which makes for a much more comfortable ride than in the back. We got stopped at some police checkpoint and the driver of the dala dala was arguing with the policeman for a while. I thought they were arguing about the number of people on the dala dala, but then the driver opened my seat, got out some tools, and made some adjustments on the vehicle for about 15 minutes. It took about 2 hours for me to get back to Stone Town, a distance that would probably normally take about 40 minutes by car.

I know everyone says this when they come to Africa, but it really is true. People here run on a different schedule - aka Africa time. Everyone is late, and people say that what they are doing is much more important than what you will be doing later. Punctuality is not a valued trait here. It's kind of refreshing, but at other times I feel like I'm never going to get anything done because everything moves pole pole (slowly slowly).