Wow, it's been a year!

So, I've been here on Pemba for over a year now and obviously I'm not good at updating this blog . So, I'm just going to put up lots and lots of photos from the last year in (somewhat) chronological order.

So, to start here are a few photos from the first time I visited Stonetown on the way to move into my new house on Pemba. This is the capital and largest city on Zanzibar as well as the tourist hub. Its a pretty incredible place, but not too easy to capture in photos. 

Now after moving to Pemba and getting settled in a bit, one of the first events I attended was this English spelling bee put on by a few of the other Peace Corps teachers. The students did great and we even ran out of words before the last students were eliminated!

This is the first of many photos of the everyday food available in my town. Pemba has a plethora of tropical fruits available, some that I've had before (pineapple, mango, watermelon, papaya, lemon, lime, passion fruit, etc) and many I've tried for the first time (jack fruit, bread fruit, rambutans, custard apple, cashew fruit, guava). These are one of the most popular fruits here called bungos. I've been told the English word is rubber vine, but I don't think they grow anywhere except Zanzibar so I'm not sure who is using the English word. They're very sour and stringy when cut open and make a really yummy juice.

This is the only photo I have form my schools graduation day celebration last year. I'll try to take better pictures this year.

This is from when I went to the local agricultural fair and was handed a very large, supposedly "safe", snake.

I have a lot of free time, so I've been trying lots of different recipes I'd never tried before. Here we have ravioli with homemade cheese, flour tortillas, fresh pasta, and the beginnings of pineapple wine.

I did not make this, but this is a typical plate from a nice swahili style restaurant in town. Chipsi, kachumbari (salad), and pueza (octopus).

In December, I traveled to Morogoro with the rest of my Peace Corps cohort and a counterpart (fellow teacher from my school) for my Early Service training and an ELL teacher training. Here are all the Pemba teachers. Our counterparts were very excited to go out to dinner at an American style restaurant and try pizza.

This is the view of the Uluguru Mountains from downtown Morogoro.

On the way back to the islands, you can either take a ferry or fly. When I fly, its in a tiny plane and there is often no copilot. If you ask nicely, they usually let you sit in the copilot seat.

My first time snorkeling and swimming with dolphins! I don't think I'll be doing it again very soon, it was much freakier than I expected. But I spent a lovely few days vacation with another volunteer and her family (pictured) on the beach on Unguja. Also, that island in the background is supposedly Bill Gates' private island. 

I was back home on Pemba for Christmas, so I made some festive gingerbread cookies.

Here's another fruit I found at the market. I don't know what it is but it tasted similar to a cashew fruit.

My wine was finally ready! It turned out quite well for a first try, it's VERY strong and VERY sweet, but pretty yummy over all.

Some pictures form another weekend in Stonetown. Zanzibar is famous for its elaborate wooden doors, and the third photo is the biggest and faciest one I've seen so far.

This is something I see most afternoons: fresh juice in a bag! I think this particular bag was avocado juice, which is super popular, though not my favorite to be honest.

Pemba has a small amusement park called Kibirinzi, complete with a farris wheel, bumper cars and swing rides!

Continuing the saga of interesting fruit, this was my one and only attempt to cook jackfruit. It turned out being much much more difficult than it sounded and took about three hours and a hammer to cut it up. Turns out unripe jackfruit (the kind you can cook) exudes this white rubbery sap that's basically like superglue. My knife was never the same. 0/10 would not try again.

I'm a part of the Education Committee for Peace Corps Tanzania and this was out yearly meeting in Dar.

Visits to Dar mean fun restaurants, so this was a delicious Ethiopian spread. 

Here's a few photos of what I wear on a typical day on Pemba. It consists of an mtandio (scarf) to cover my head and shoulders and a dala (long, simple, shift dress) or baibui (long, nice, black dress) to cover everything else.

And we've arrived at spring vacation! We had a week off school in April, so I went to Zambia with some of the other Zanzibar volunteers. We flew to Lusaka, then took busses down to Livingstone to see Victoria falls and take a quick day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana and Namibia, then bussed back, spent a few days in Lusaka and flew home. This first photo is the walkway out to the Pemba ferry in Mkoani.

We spent most of out time at Victoria Falls on the Zambia side, but made a quick foray over to the Zimbabwe side for old times sake. Overall the falls were even more spectacular than I was expecting, definitely something to check off the bucket list.

Our safari consisted of the lovely lunch, a boat trip down the river and then a drive through the park. We saw tons of elephants, giraffes, hippos, antelope, a crocodile, and some zebras.

Back home on Pemba, I had a rough week when the large tree by my house fell and crushed my courtyard. Luckily it only damaged the outside and I was safe and sound inside the house.

A friend in town surprised me with this fantastic birthday cake to celebrate my birthday.

After getting back from vacation, the month of Ramadan started which had a big impact on everyday life here. I fasted during the day as much as I could, though I caved in and drank water after a few days. There was a lot of new food that people cooked especially for iftar meals, mostly sweets and cookies like these ones.

And at the end of Ramadan, the whole island celebrated Eid for four days. This is a picture of me in my new dress to celebrate Eid.

After Ramadan, clove season began which is a big deal here. These are some fresh cloves before they are dried sold. You can eat them raw like this, but its so strong it burns like a hot pepper.

Here's a picture from one of the many weddings that I've seen here. It seems like people are always getting married!

This small canoe is called a dhow and is used to get up and down the coast to some of the smaller villages. Some friends brought me to visit the nearby village by dhow.

This was a birthday cake we made for one of the other Pemba volunteers' birthday. 

Here's the view from the juice shop near my house where I often hang out. Those chicken advertisements make me laugh every time because they say "For people who are kuku about chicken" and kuku is the swahili word for chicken.

This is urojo or Zanzibar mix, which is a super popular street soup. It has a sour broth from mango or tamarind and lots of optional things that you can mix how you want. I usually get hard boiled eggs, kachori (fried mashed potato balls), bagia (fried bread/bean balls), cassava chips, lime and a few veggies.

It's difficult to see in this picture, but this is form when the Uhuru Torch came to Pemba. The Uhuru torch is a symbol of Tanzania as a nation and every year it travels to visit every single district in the country. We got out of school for the day and lined up on the road to see it go by as a parade.

Some friends insisted I take a photo in a "gari ya ng'ombe" or ox cart. They thought it was funny that I was sort of freaked out by the cow, but am not scared at all of the stay dogs. Most Pembans are very afraid of dogs.

Here's the one of the beautiful beaches on Pemba. This isn't what the ocean looks like by my house, but it's about an hour drive north.

My first attempt at homemade pizza! It worked pretty well considering I don't have an oven or a baking tray.

These are the fried potato balls I mentioned earlier (kachori). They're a super common snack on the street along with fried dough with chutney, and fried cassava. I usually eat them with a sour tamarind sauce.

And last but not least, this is the view from my seat by the office at my school. This is where I do most of my grading papers and lesson planning every day.