Wooo April! aka RAINY season!
First off, I can't believe I only have 16 days left of my semester abroad! It's gone crazy fast most of the time, with a few lulls... but that's to be expected in any 4 month period of time.
The past 17 days, I've been doing research in Jozani National Park on Zanzibar. I have interviewed 60 people in three different villages about their views on conservation, and the positive and negative impacts the park has on their lives. In addition, I'm researching alternative livelihoods in the hope of minimizing the reliance that the communities have on natural resources. I've seen and heard some really amazing things. There is so much conflict over land use here, because everyone uses the land in order to survive. I've been able to talk to a lot of head environmentalists in Zanzibar too, including people from the Dept. of Forestry and Sustainable Management of Land and Environment.
I've learned a lot about Zanzibar, its people, and also myself. Its a whole different experience being on my own, making my own schedule and figuring out contacts, transportation, etc. Because of that, I've had great interactions with Zanzibarians that I wouldn't otherwise been able to have. Accidently hitchhiking with a soccer team, riding on the back of motorbikes, and squeezing twice the amount of allowed people onto public buses are only a few of the ridiculous ways of getting around I've experienced. What's amazing about all of it, though, is how functioning everything is. I look around and think about what a mess everything is, but then I look again and realize it works.
So right now, I'm living in a house (okay, mansion) in Paje, a beach village on the east coast. The house belongs to a friend of our academic director, and its AMAZING. A bunch of us are living here, finishing up the program by writing our papers and playing in the ocean in the time inbetween. I'm definitely excited to go home, but for the time being I'm really happy being enjoying my final weeks in Africa! I'll probably never have this opportunity again, so I'm soaking it up (and probably too much sun) for all its worth!
First off, I can't believe I only have 16 days left of my semester abroad! It's gone crazy fast most of the time, with a few lulls... but that's to be expected in any 4 month period of time.
The past 17 days, I've been doing research in Jozani National Park on Zanzibar. I have interviewed 60 people in three different villages about their views on conservation, and the positive and negative impacts the park has on their lives. In addition, I'm researching alternative livelihoods in the hope of minimizing the reliance that the communities have on natural resources. I've seen and heard some really amazing things. There is so much conflict over land use here, because everyone uses the land in order to survive. I've been able to talk to a lot of head environmentalists in Zanzibar too, including people from the Dept. of Forestry and Sustainable Management of Land and Environment.
I've learned a lot about Zanzibar, its people, and also myself. Its a whole different experience being on my own, making my own schedule and figuring out contacts, transportation, etc. Because of that, I've had great interactions with Zanzibarians that I wouldn't otherwise been able to have. Accidently hitchhiking with a soccer team, riding on the back of motorbikes, and squeezing twice the amount of allowed people onto public buses are only a few of the ridiculous ways of getting around I've experienced. What's amazing about all of it, though, is how functioning everything is. I look around and think about what a mess everything is, but then I look again and realize it works.
So right now, I'm living in a house (okay, mansion) in Paje, a beach village on the east coast. The house belongs to a friend of our academic director, and its AMAZING. A bunch of us are living here, finishing up the program by writing our papers and playing in the ocean in the time inbetween. I'm definitely excited to go home, but for the time being I'm really happy being enjoying my final weeks in Africa! I'll probably never have this opportunity again, so I'm soaking it up (and probably too much sun) for all its worth!
No comments:
Post a Comment