Sikukukumbuka. I'll give you ten Shillings if you can figure out what that means...

Hello again! Thanks for all the emails- it is so fantastic to hear from everyone.

Zanzibar just keeps getting better... We are all staying with our host families now (for 2 weeks) and it has been really awesome to get to know families who have lived in stone town for literally generations. My family is really ridiculous- there are 6 children, ages 15, 8, 5, 4, 2, 7 months, and two parents, so it ends up being absolute chaos in the house. My new Swahili name is Aysha-- and the youngest son runs around screaming at the top of his lungs, Eshe, Eshe, Eshe. My host mother says that he's in love with me and my sister says she thinks we should get married. I'm considering, but I'll have to consult with my parents first... to work out the dowry and everything.

Both of my host parents speak English, but we don't really speak much at home. I spend a lot of time listening and making funny faces at the little kids. They have been really good to me.

We're in the thick of school now, but it didn't take me long to realize that the experiential learning part of this program means minimal homework. We have class for 6-8 hours a day (4 hours of Swahili, 2 hours of Coastal Ecology seminars, and sometimes another 2 hour lecture- we had one on Zanzibari history and one on Islamic culture this week). I really love our Swahili classes- we have two teachers, Almasi and Bi. Asia. Bi Asia is, without a doubt, among the most jovial people I have ever met. She is basically a mother to all of us and I will be so sad when Swahili ends in a week. But she's coming on our adventure to another island in a few weeks, so that's when we'll really show her a good time.

We usually have a few hours in the middle of each day to wander the world and see the sights. Two days ago, some of us hopped on a DalaDala (minibus) for about 25 cents and went to the beach outside of Stone Town. It was SO amazing. It was low tide so we walked out probably 1/4 mile through bubble crab sand balls, then through thick mud, past the mangroves out to a little rock peninsula... And the only other people that were there were some kids having a rock fight (note: bring more toys for kids). As we walked further out into the water we all saw these bright red things in the water, so we picked one up-- it was the most beautiful, bright red, orancge, and tan, opaque starfish I have ever seen. It looked like a creature straight out of the stone age. After enough of us had cut our feet on things we couldn't see we all sat around watching the microscopic crabs scurry all over the rocks. And sunbathed... all before we went back to class.

My first introduction into the Muslim world has been really interesting. I feel like there is so much that I have always tried to understand about the religion and culture that only took me a few days to understand while living here. The calls to worship (prayer is 5 times a day) are so beautiful- the first is around 5:15 AM, but I'm usually stirring about around that time anyway. (I definitely haven't mastered sleeping in a new place yet). Yesterday we had a lecture where we talked about gender roles, polygamy, the pillars of the reilgion, etc. I'm trying really hard not to judge gender roles in this society, but there is so much that is still so foreign to me... For example, we learned that a man can divorce his wife simply by uttering 'I divorce you' in front of two people, whereas a woman can only divorce a man if she presents her case to a high court. A man may also decide within 3 months that he wants to remarry the wife he recently divorced and she must accept (he can do this up to three times before it is no longer valid). I am really interested to learn more about the religion.

Well, I have to go back to class soon... but I WILL put up pictures soon. It's just an issue of bringing cameras and cables to internet cafes... but they will come soon. I love you all! I miss you all (but not enough to come home yet)!