Déjà vu in the Serengeti

After Ngorongoro crater, we traveled to the Serengeti, aka the setting of the Lion King. Basically, my life has come full circle (get it?? hahah The circle of life...) from my childhood, from watching the lion king on my television to going to the birth place of Simba.
The Serengeti was definitely special, but not because of the animals (they were the same old lions, zebras, etc... hahah I'm being obnoxious on purpose), but, really, it was special because of the hotel that I stayed at with my parents. 

A nice view at breakfast....

It was a day like any other. I was showering - my dad was using the internet. He had come back to the hotel room to use the bathroom but since I was using it, my mother sent him off to find an alternative place. 


So I'm peacefully showering when all of a sudden, in the reflection on the glass of the shower, I saw an ENTIRE HERD of elephants cross in front of our balcony. I obviously got really excited and started shouting from the bathroom to my mother to look at outside!


She couldn’t figure out how to open door without my dad's help sooooo there she was shouting to open the door so I ran out of the shower, (tracking soap and water everywhere) to open the balcony door and snap some pics of my mom with the elephants.

Thinking that my dad missed out on the whole experience, my mother and I laughed to ourselves, only to have him come back and tell us that he saw ALL THESE ELEPHANTS DRINKING FROM THE WATERING HOLE right by the swimming pool…(which is something I HAVE YET TO SEE.)

My mom with the elephants outside out room!

Anyways. Check out the hotel. It's beautiful..and probably Russian owned. The best part is that they didn’t try to be fake by planting totally outrageous things that would usually NEVER grow, like GRASS (like at one of the other hotels we stayed at).  The Serengeti landscape was made into the feature point by the hotel and it was very well done. Propzzz.

Safari in Tanzania

I was pretty lucky because my parents decided to come meet me in Zanzibar after my program was over. (I'm planning on staying here in East Africa till at least the end of April, so they used it as an excuse to come and check out this place!). My family. Came ALL THE WAY TO AFRICA. Because of ME! It is doubtful that they would have ever come if not for my participation in the CFSIA program, so it's kinda cool that I'm pushing my family members to step out of their comfort zone, in addition to my own.

After 2.5 months of living in the bush, I was treated to some first-class Safari adventures and clean flush toilets with toilet paper! (I'm not sure if y'all are interested but here's a link to the story of the worst toilet that I encountered on my program).

Anyways. the toilets are not that important (even though they kind of are), but ya so I got a real treat, getting a visit from my parents and being able to travel with them in "luxury". I forgot how much I missed them and I guess I got used to being on my "own" (with 37 other students all the time) and it was just really exciting but strange to see my parents turn up at my hotel in ZANZIBAR.

It made me think about how cool travel can be! Someone can get on an airplane and fly across our planet... are huge, large, planet, and end up in the exact same spot as you. Aka, the tiny little Marine Hotel in Stone Town in Zanzibar, Tanzania.  Safari in Tanzania was AMAZING. Although it consisted of the same animals and what not - being in a smaller 4 Wheel Drive vehicle with a pop-up roof, rather than a MASSIVE truck, made a big difference! We had some pretty cool encounters, like having a huge elephant cross the road in front of us!

But obviously, just like a lot of things in East Africa, our trip did not go as smoothly as one would hope. On our way to Dar from Zanzi, our flight got canceled and we ended up being delayed by two hours, causing us to miss our connecting flight to Kilimanjaro, therefore causing us to miss our first game drive! When we stopped in Dar, we were told that my bag had gone missing (my diva bag :( ), only to find out that it hadn't been checked all the way through to Kili and was making a bunch of revolutions in the baggage claim.

And then, to make matters worse, we got on the truck and drove into the park for 1.5 hours, as the sun was setting and came across a full on RIVER separating us from our hotel that was only another 4 km away. Over the course of the afternoon (while we were stuck in airports), it had POURED. As a result, many of the seasonal rivers had filled up. Our driver (named Moses, how ironic) took a look at the river and almost considered crossing it - but thankfully turned around. At that moment I was convinced we were going to have to sleep in the truck overnight so I was getting a little scared. Lucky for us, Moses had been in the business for 25 years and took us to a hotel that didn't require any river crossing.... and we were rewarded with a beautiful view in the morning after our very trying day.

The first place we went on REAL safari was Ngorongoro crater, which is kind of like this pristine area - a volcanic crater, that has trapped all these animals - perfect for our viewing. it was cute to see my parents get excited about giraffes and elephants and zebras and lions just like I had, on DAY ONE of my trip, back in Nairobi National Park. Then I got to seem really intellegent by telling them all the stuff I new about the animals that I had learned - like how hyenas eat bones, which is why their poo is white (thanks Tay...), and how a zebra's tactic to avoid being eaten by a predator, is to gather in a group so that their stripes confuse the predator, and the individual is less likely to be eaten.

Happy parents and Moses!!

All in all - Ngorongoro crater made us all pretty happy....

Andddd... I saw Pumba!

From there on we traveled to the Serengetti which u will hear about more laaaaaaaaaaterrr.
Good luck with all of your exams (to those of you at McGill), and good night!

Doors of Zanzibar

Zanzibar is completely amazing with their alleyways that are lined by these BEAUTIFUL doors. I can't go anywhere without stopping a few times (ok..alot) to get shots of the doors. My friends dont mind too much...yet....

School's out for the Summer!

And so, with the completion of our final presentations, our program ended in Zanzibar with the flourish of my signature on the release form. The program CFSIA 2011 is over.  It was two and a half months of intense travel and while it may have felt long and arduous while it was happening, now that it is over, I can only remember the positive experiences that I had.

We were given the chance to express what we felt about this program and I had to echo the sentiments of everyone around me: This program is the way that education should be. It should be hands-on, interdisciplinary,exciting and engaging. I couldn’t have asked for a better semester during my undergraduate experience. Sometimes I think about how I DIDN’T spend this past semester in MTL and it kinda doesn’t seem real to me – I still have a hard time believing that I did a whole semester abroad!

The proof of my experience, however, can be found in the ways that the field school has changed me:

1. I will be a different type of tourist. I will question the places I choose to stay - Who owns the place? Who profits? Who do they employ and how do they treat their employees?

2. I want to learn the stories of the people I talk to: Where did they grow up? Why are they here? What are the biggest challenges they face every day and how are they affected by the government?

3. I will try to educate myself about the place I'm traveling to. After learning the history of everywhere I went, I don't think I can travel again without being somewhat informed.

4. I want to change the way I live. I don't really know how yet, but I have learned that WE as CONSUMERS have a great deal of power. Our money, and what we choose to invest it in, is ultimately US making a choice. I will CHOOSE where I spend my money more carefully and spend it on things I want to support.

I will think critically about my decisions and how they affect global markets and therefore, the global community.

5. I am WAY more inclined to embrace the outdoors. If the goal is to observe the natural beauty of the area: rather than staying in some big hotel, I rather camp on a beach or stay in a small hotel that brings me closer to the things I have come to see.

Never before have I met such a group of characters. That's probably  the best way to describe them. Everyone has a strong personality and are more than willing to share their opinions. Lots of important ideas were exchanged among my group. Whether we were discussing the ethics of giving pens to children in Kibale, or understanding why prostitution is legalized in Amsterdam in the Maasai Mara, this is one very informed group.

While this “exchange of ideas” was super important and engaging, I gotta say that its nice to take a break from it now (and maybe go back home to being the most opinionated/loudest person in my group of friends).

But I can’t wait to see what our reunions will be like. These are the only 37 ppl that will really beable to completely understand the experience I just had, from the Bunduz cooking to swimming in the Indian ocean to walking along the streets of Kibera. And for that, I thank them for their support along this trip and hopefully into the future as well.

Time to get Academic: Our Final Presentations

After our academic journals were handed in and our final exams were written, we only had on elast thing to do: our final research presentations (worth our entire course (basically)). At the beginning of our trip (literally our first week in Nairobi), we decided on the themes for our research across East Africa that were connected to the millennium development goals. (we also decided on our groups before we knew anything about each other – by the end of the 2 months, I knew that I was one of the lucky ones that ended up having an incredible group dynamic and team mates for this huge project). 

My group, which consisted of: Bluth, Justine, Natalie (from Queens), Maya, Andrew, Shelby (from UBC) and Laura decided to focus on environmental sustainability in food production across east Africa, and evaluate the drivers that were pushing for change in food production techniques and whether these changes were more or less sustainable than the old technique…We conducted opportunistic interviews everytime we visited a project or site and held regular group meetings to discuss our findings, write up progress reports and draw some conclusions.

On the 2^nd last day of the program we were given the entire day to completely the project (aka a half-hour presentation) and integrate and analyze ALL of our data. My group eventually concluded that “sustainability” is a difficult thing to define. There are many levels that define something as sustainable. Things can be sustainable at a local level, but not necessarily on a global scale. Through research, we saw first hand, the effects that global drivers of change have on the sustainability of practices here in East Africa. Economic drivers and environmental drivers were the top two and so, as a group, we are ultimately more away of our global impact and the interconnectedness of global systems. 

I’d say this is a pretty important lesson to learn, and that in itself, makes this trip a very successful  and important addition to my education. I'm very proud of our research, presentation and findings so if anyone would like to view the presentation you can find it here!

Stone Town’s Night Market

If and when you go to Zanzibar, you will see that seafood is a pretty big deal here. The fishing done here contributes to 4% of the whole Tanzanian GDP and the market for fish is especially enhanced with tourism and tourists expecting seafood.

Stone Town has a night food market from 7 pm till midnight that sells mainly seafood which is cooked right in front of you. Everyone selling at the market are fishermen and I have to say - it looks a little gross because they lay out all of their raw seafood on a table. The fishermen stand there all night swatting away the FLIES.

In order to eat a such a market, I came up with a list of tricks as that will ensure that you choose the freshest, most LEGIT seafood rather than find yourself with an upset stomach...

1. Alec told me that one should not buy food early on in the evening, as it is probably left over from the night before. 
2. Maya suggested that one should always make sure to watch them COOK the food. It should be warm when you receive it.
3. My advice - create a bond with your fisherman. Become friends, and that way when you ask him if the food is french, he hopefully will not lie to you. You may say that is a very silly piece of advice - but I made MY FISHERMAN promise me that his fish was fresh and I ate and did not get sick :)

The fishermen that I got talking to were really friendly (...ok we were a little tipsy too....). We met three fishermen but "Mr. Cha-Cha" is the only "name" I actually remember. They were all pretty young guys. We spoke to them about their fishing and their methods and the tourists that they have to deal with. Out of nowhere, Mr. Cha-Cha demonstrated to us that he could speak a little French, and VERY GOOD ITALIAN!... he told us that he works for the government by day but loves selling fish at night so that he can support himself, his wife and his two kids. 

Laurie - Anne getting the inside scoop on our seafood

My fishermen!!

Anyways… after making Mr. ChaiCha promise me that his seafood was fresh, I chose some big prawns to be grilled. Although NONE of my friends wanted to share with me (because they were scardey cats), I found the street food QUITE ENJOYABLE and I was totally fine the next morning.

All our diners in Zanzibar were lovely, especially our final dinner at "Livingstones" which was right on the beach. Livingstones also had a great DJ who played two whole songs that I had never heard before but were apparently "mainstream". My music + everything that is happening with the Arab Spring (more importantly) leave me with LOTS to catch up on when I return home.

But I guess in the mean time, I will spend my evenings smoking shisha on the beach and enjoying the scent and breeze of the ocean for my last few days on this program (which is slowly morphing into a holiday).

Aaaaah– The Tourist Life.

The last few days of my program in Zanzibar have been a mix of relaxing and intense. We were all torn between taking the time to enjoy Zanzibar and everything it has to offer and writing our final essays or exams, and finishing off our BIG presentations that we have been doing research for since Uganda.

In my last few days, I got a chance to study marine biology, specifically about coral reefs and their importance in the underwater ecosystem. There is a ton of conflict between different stake holders in the area with regard to the coral.  Fishermen use harmful fishing methods like dynamiting the coral in order to catch copious amounts of fish in one seating. But at the same time, the coral (that thousands of creatures find their homes in) is being seriously negatively affected. Its pretty sad because there is more biodiversity than you can even imagine (or see while snorkeling) under the water, living in the coral. 

The coral reefs like warm water which is why we don’t find off the coast of Canada. But because of our unsustainable actions that has led to climate change, the ocean water is getting warmer and this creates a good habitat for microorganisms that are a disease to the coral, and in that way, we all have a hand in its destruction through increasing global temperatures.

Miranda going for a snorkel

Anyways, after learning about the coral, we were given the chance to snorkel in Zanzibar’s aquamarine waters so all 38 of us took little dow boats out to an island and enjoyed the underwater world for a few hours. We looked for coral damage and natural predators of the coral. I thought it was a pretty cool application of my lecture.

The second “touristy” thing we got to do was go on a “Spice Tour”. Zanzibar is also known as “spice island” because they grow tons and tons of different spices. But for the most part, the spices are used up within the country, rather than sent aboard. The spice farm was lushhhhhhhhhh and smellllled gooood everywhere! I am pretty in love with spices (you should see my spice cupboard in my apt) so I was loving life as we walked through the trees and smelled leaves and roots and bark to try and identify what spice we were smelling. You kinda forget that our dried spices come for real growing plants/roots/bark… makes you wonder how the first spice makers ever thought of grinding up a random part of a plant and using it in their food…

I saw ginger in its plant form (we eat the root), and turmeric root (which leaves a dark yellow smear where ever you touch it to. I saw cloves and cardamom before they are dried out, and a cinnamon tree whose bark we use for making cinnamon sticks. I spent a few mins just smelling the tree and it was yummmay.

I saw lemon grass and iodine plants and aloe vera. I saw a pepper corn tree, an almond tree, and a pineapple growing in the ground. I gotta say it was pretty amazing because it was so relatable to me and my every day life!

Fresh Cloves

Cardomom

Mmm lichee

tourist apparell

Then we entered tourist mode again at the end of the tour, where we watched a man climb a coconut tree (while singing) and then had coconut water in young coconuts while wearing hats and frog necklaces made out of palm leaves. OVERALL: good times being a tourist in Zanzibar. We deserved it after so much academic engagement hahah.