Tafrija siku ya kuzaliwa Laila

Hey everyone,

Hope this message finds you all well, and warm, I hear MN got some snow? Its about 85 degrees and sunny here in Stone Town. The title of this post means literally "the day of birthday of Laila (my given kiswahili name, sounds like Clapton's Layla)". This year I am fortunate enough that I got to spend my 23rd birthday in Kizimkaze and Stone Town, Zanzibar. Kizimkaze is a town thats about a 1 hour bus ride south along te western coast of the island. We spent about 4 days in Kizimkaze, and after a night out exploring the village (lots of stories there, which I'll save for later, given upon request), we got up at 5:30 AM to catch the dolphins morning ritual feeding. We brought scuba gear at the chance that they might just let us swim with them, and they did. I found myself jumping into the Indian Ocean and immidiately I was in the middle of a pack of bottlenose dolphins. I looked underneath me and there were about 8-12 of them. Amazing. After that swim and a couple marine mammal lectures, we headed north to Stone Town. Our language courses are pretty intense, as we study Kiswahili for about 4 hours a day, and in addition practice it virtually all the time as everyone we interact with has limited or no english vocabulary. Which is very nice, as it gives us a chance to put our language to practice. On the eve of my birthday, we went to a music festival in Stone Town called, sauti na Busara (sounds of wisdom). Pretty amazing, as all of the bands are local to East Africa, mostly from Kenya, mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The concert is a really big deal and if you guys are interested you should look it up. I start my two week homestay with a Stone Town family tomorrow, which should be interesting and lots of fun.

In American news, I just found out today that the paper that I have been working on with the UST Geo department for over a year has officially passed the first round of revisions with flying colors!!! So thats very exciting. Other than that I'm doing very well, and while I miss you all in the states, you are with me here in my heart!

More later,
laura