Zanzibarrr

is absolutely gorgeous. White sand and the clearest blue water. Just like a postcard. I'm here for our second long weekend in the program. Staying at this sweet place- the room itself is very Arab/exotified, but you walk down and you're at the beach. It's glorious.

So on Friday, I didn't really know how to just relax and enjoy it. This place is basically filled with rich Europeans and Americans. It's odd being a tourist rather than a volunteer-- I'm used to being in the village and uncomfortable fitting into the category of ignorant, privileged tourist. But I paid a lot of money for this vacation, so today I promised myself I would make the most of it, and I did. I sat on the beach alll day. I have tanned a lot. You won't even recognize me.

So yeah, just wanted to rub it in. The Indian Ocean is quite lovely. =D

Oh yeah, almost forgot. This random dude overheard our conversation and was like hey, I did SIC in 2000. Now I'm running my own NGO and getting my PhD...and we engaged in hours of conversation being critical about our roles here and what NGO strategies and volunteer mindsets are effective. Then we asked him to take cheesy pictures of us. So I sat on the beach all day AND engaged in hours of critical conversation...call me a nerd, but it was a good vaca to me. =)