Team Retreat to Zanzibar!

After half of our summer internship, we decided to head to Zanzibar, an island off of Tanzania, for a team bonding week-long retreat! We took many forms of transportation (buses, ferries, etc.) to reach Zanzibar and it was all worth the trip.

We spent the first half of our time in Stone Town, a beautiful area with white buildings, lots of shopping and good food. In Stone Town, we took a boat to smaller islands like Prison Island, where we visited a tortoise sanctuary, Bawe Island, where we went snorkeling, and Nakupenda beach, where an accidental sea urchin incident occurred. As Zanzibar was very touristy, we were able to satisfy many cravings for Western food and we got to experience unique seafood at night markets! At Emerson Spice House restaurant we had an amazing rooftop five course seafood dinner, while watching the sunset. We went on a spice tour the following day; smelling and tasting many spices and fruits, eating a local lunch, and hanging out on the beach.

Our next half of our Zanzibar vacation took place on the East Coast in Paje. We roomed in cute huts with sand all around and enjoyed relaxing on hammocks out on the beach, tanning, having fresh fruit drinks and swimming in the vast ocean. We also had amazing fresh seafood from the local catch of the day!

In addition, throughout our trip we had some interesting encounters with locals. The locals absolutely loved it when we spoke Swahili, as not many tourists there did. There were also a lot of locals that tried to sell us things so we had to learn to steer away from scammers and bargain when we can.

Overall, Zanzibar was a wonderful trip to have some time away from the office and get to know each other even better!

-Palehswan

Hike to Choma Falls and Swahili Progress!

This past Sunday was definitely the best by far of the internship. The International Team hiked to Choma Falls with our in-country representative, Charles! It was a great team bonding experience. The views kept improving as we hiked farther up and although it was hot, the team was able to cool off in the waterfalls at the top. We finished the day off at a restaurant called Red Chili where we had pizza very similar from back home!

This week, we also had a Swahili test! 2-3 times a week, our in-country volunteer, Pastone, has been teaching us Swahili. Being able to live in a country where Swahili is the primary language has benefited our learning all around as we are able to use Swahili to have basic conversations with locals and buy things at the market.

As we have hit the mid-summer point, in the office we have been working on our mid-summer report for the Board of Governors. We also visited government officials to kick start a malnutrition project!

-Palehswan

Tanzanian Festivals and Food

This week was the end of Ramadan and the Eid holiday. Although not every Tanzanian is Muslim, Eid is a two-day national holiday celebrated by all. Prayer calls from mosques continued all day and through the night. Many people wore traditional robes and hats, and more food was out in the streets. We had half days of work to enjoy the holiday with the Tanzanian team. Barbecues, ice cream and many walks to town were involved. 

On the topic of food, Tanzania has two main staples; rice and ugali. Ugali is a cornmeal dough that is used as a spoon to pick up other smaller dishes. Beans are a common protein we eat in the house. Chicken is served once a week by our mama but many barbecues serve pork or beef, as chicken is more expensive. Beware for many bones and pieces of fat. Many tropical fruits like mangoes, passion fruit, guava, papaya and avocados can be found. This week our mama pressed fresh mango/avocado/passion fruit juice that was absolutely delicious. We were also able to try fresh coconuts from our tree. Our watchman climbed to the top of palm tree to pick them up! For vegetables we usually have kachumbari (a tomato salad), peas or spinach. Some authentic dishes we love are sweet chapatis, sambusas and chips mayai (a combination of french fries and fried eggs)! 

Coconut from our tree                                       BBQ pork   

-Palehswan                 

Weekends

Every weekend holds a new surprise in this internship. On Saturday's we work half days and we have the whole day off on Sunday. Our first weekend we attended our mama's daughter's birthday, and had the best chocolate cake ever! On our second weekend, we had a fun dance party in our backyard. Our lot this year has a ton of room for activities and we were lucky to have big speakers from one of the Tanzanian team members. Although we danced it out in pouring rain, it was definitely a night to remember! On that Sunday we were also very fortunate to be invited to one of the Tanzanian member's relatives house for dinner. We finished off the day with classic milkshakes from a Western restaurant, called Suzy's. The third weekend was filled with outings. We had a team social with the Tanzanian team at a barbecue restaurant that had an adjacent dance floor. Since we only get meat once a week, the team all enjoyed having soft chicken skewers that were doused in a delicious sauce. As Sunday's are mama's day off, we decided to make our own guacamole. Our backyard has tons of fruit trees. I was surprised to find out we had a mandarin tree when I went to go pick out what I thought was limes for the guac. For dinner some of the team went out for an Indian dinner (that was worth the wait) and others went swimming at the beautiful Nashera hotel pool and had a barbecued kilo of pork! 

One thing that can't be missed, are the continuous gorgeous walks we go on!

-Palehswan