Hello all,

I hope this post finds you well. We just arrived back in Stone Town yesterday. The past 2 weeks have been filled with lots of ferry trips (thanks toad), bus rides, car rides, dala dala rides, safari jeep rides, boat rides, you name it, we've been on it. Our time spent in Dar es Salaam was really great, it was good/odd to be in a big city since we've been in small villages and Stone Town the entire time we've been here. And you'd think that big city means fast moving traffic, reliable electricity and water, cement building, paved roads. In fact, Dar es Salaam really is not like a big city that we know, but more of a village that is spread way out. We attended lectures at the Univeristy of Dar es Salaam on various topics from various professors, and got to see the campus life which was really great.

The past weeks have also included a couple excursions with a famous East African Marine Biologist/Taxonomist, Matt Richmond (also author of our text book for this semester), which was really awesome. We snorkeled and learned to identify various fish species and families, as well as coral species as well. We were on some protected reefs and islands, as well as some that are not, and the difference was very noticeable. Our studies focus on coastal ecology and conservation, and really we have been learning a great deal about problems with sustainability and conservation in Tanzania. Tanzania, like many or most other developing countries, struggles with conservation of their natural resources, mostly due to a lack of enforcement, lack of funds, lack of accountability, and inablility of most citizens to see the environment in the big picture. This is mostly due to the fact that a lot of people think day to day or week to week. Most don't have the luxury that us Westerners do to think in a larger timescale, often year to year or more. This concept can be hard to appreciate for a tree hugger like me (or most of us here), who hears about dynamite fishing and can't believe that it still is actually practiced in places similar to Tanzania and Zanzibar. However, when put in this situation, its totally understandable that without the proper money, equipment, and with foreign outfits coming in with state of the art technology (and getting most of the fish), environmental sustainability isn't number one on the average fisherman's mind. This has been eye-opening, and was an unexpected lesson that I've learned.

In other, lighter news, we got to do yoga with a yoga master here, which was pretty amazing (and painful). Satya runs a free school and clinic in Vugu forest, right outside of Dar es Salaam, and after having touring the facilities, he invited us to do yoga with him for a while. I made the mistake of planting myself towards the front, and all of the sudden found myself dead-center in front of him. It was awesome, although my hamstrings would say differently.

The trip to Saadani National Park (formerly Saadani Game Refuge) was amazing, and it is located "where the bush meets the sea". Picture the Lion King, without the talking animals and choreography, and thats pretty much what it was like. Maybe not exactly, but at one point, our driver Gideon (who is the toughest Tanzanian I've met yet, and wears a raspberry beret (not kidding)), had us right infront of a heard of wildebeast, and a group of about 10 zebras, and some giraffes. Pretty amazing. We stayed at a campsite on the ocean, and ate really well, as the cooks there knew we were American (we got mashed potatoes and spaghetti and I'm pretty sure we all must have looked like we hadn't seen food in 2 weeks as we ate that food so quickly). While at Saadani, we saw giraffe, hippos, crocodile, wildebeast, waterbuck, ripa, lions, and a lot of pretty birds (sorry I don't know the birds names you guys in Spearfish, but I took pictures).

Our return back to Stone Town was more than welcome. And we were all very excited to see our friends and families that we had left behind for two weeks. Next week we head up to the island of Pembe, the Northern island in the Zanzibar archipelago. In other news, I have been wrestling with grad school decision time while over here, and was accepted at the U of Utah, U of New Mexico, and well as the U of Nevada, Las Vegas. I have officially decided to accept their offer at UNLV, so if anyone wants to take a Vegas vacation next year, you have a place to stay and a tour guide (lots of cool rocks, oh and the strip).

Salama,
Laura

p.s. will try and post pictures soon.