Chasing Elephants???

So... I know I told most of you that I was returning to the US on the 18th of May. BUT my plans have changed. My friend Chris (Chris Rice- another Oberlin student, a different Chris from the one that I have been living with) and I applied for stipends to stay in Tanzania to do an internship with the wildlife conservation society of Tanzania. We're going to be living and working at the Ruaha Landscape Program outside of Iringa, Tanzania until the end of July. I am so ridiculously excited that I can hardly contain it! I definitely miss a lot of people, and will be excited to come home at the end of the summer, but this opportunity seemed too amazing to pass up. So, if any of you have any plans to go on summer trips, I strongly advise you to consider coming to Tanzania. :) I think we'll be doing some sort of analysis of elephant tracking data and "bushmeat consumption", which can only mean exactly what it sounds like...

For the past few days I have been on a mission: a mission to buy a postcard. It sounds like kind of an easy task in such a tourist-y place. There are postcards everywhere you look.... BUT, this was a little more difficult. Chris and I were looking for a specific postcard. It had to have giraffes on it, because it was for a specific person who as a very strong love for giraffes. The only problem is, there are no giraffes in Zanzibar. I don't know why I didn't realize that... if you want a postcard of a boat, no problem. A sting ray, no problem. But it has been about 2 weeks since I started keeping my eye out for giraffe postcards and we have yet to see one. UNTIL today. AND, not only was there one giraffe postcard, there were many of them to choose from in a shop that we meandered in to. It was almost like divine intervention. And then I looked on the back and saw that it was from the place where we will be living this summer- Ruaha National Park. Then I knew it was divine intervention. :)

Chris and I moved back to Unguja Island a few days ago. We felt confident that not only had we met every single man in the city we were living in on Pemba, but we were pretty sure that they had all proposed to us. And by us I really mean that they would ask both of us to marry them at the same time because men are allowed to have 4 wives according to Islam. It got to the point that Chris described marriage proposals as a kind of "courtesy" to extend to someone, and that we should be slightly offended if a man didn't propose. So after refusing all of the proposals, there were many angry men after us, so we had to leave.

But our time in Pemba was amazing. I moved back in with my host family for a few days, which was wonderful. My host mom (who was only 26) is absolutely wonderful, and I love all of her friends and family. It was so great to see them again.

When we got back to Unguja we decided that for a change of scenery/to save some money we would move into the house where some of our friends have been living for the past two weeks. So we hopped a Dalla Dalla, along with another 32 people crammed on the inside and 8 dangling merrily off the back, to Paje (another town on the east side of the island). We arrived an hour or so later, where our friends met us and brought us back to what they have appropriately named, "The mansion". THe house is UNBELIEVABLE. A red cross worker owns it- it's right on the beach, with at least 4-5 bedrooms, 3 of the biggest bathrooms I have seen in my entire life (think 1.5 dorm rooms), a courtyard in the middle, and guards sitting outside 24 hours a day. I can't really get used to it, but it has definitely been a posh last several days. We spend days working on our projects, and our evenings lounging in hammocks overlooking the beach, playing cards, and cooking amazing food in their amazing kitchen. I think I'll have to snap out of it soon.

Ok, well my time is up, but I can't wait to hear from you all! Thanks for all the letters and emails, etc. I'm going to a wedding on Friday, and I think it's going to be quite the experience, so I'll be sure to tell you all about it.