These next few posts are going to be all about my recent travels. Since community entry I’ve taken a train all the way through Zambia and Tanzania to Dar Es Salaam and on to the island Zanzibar, as well as a trip to Kasanka National Park in Zambia to witness the world’s largest bat migration, and finally a long cross country road trip through Namibia.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the freedom and accessibility to travel wasn’t a motivating factor in my decision to Join Peace Corps. I’m only about nine months into my service and I’ve already had so many wonderful experiences to look back on. My first trip that I decided on was a small group trip to Zanzibar. We were a group of four volunteers: me, Angela, Cole, and Xinyuan. In order to keep our travel relatively cheap, we decided as a group to take the train from Mkushi in Zambia for three days to Dar es Salaam. Once in Dar we would take the ferry to Zanzibar and then after our time on the beaches take a plane from Zanzibar back to Lusaka.

I will probably never get on a train again. We all decided on buying first class tickets so that we could have a four person car to ourselves. Our car was like stepping back in time to a train decked out for the 1950’s, but had been used extensively during that whole time before it made its way to us. After busing for about three hours to get there, our train was delayed for something like six hours (to be honest, I lost track of the wait time after four hours). Once we finally got on our way and moving, which was extremely bumpy and shaky, sometimes I think we hit a few other trains along the way, Xinyuan got motion sickness. The next day I was sick as well. For two out of three of our travel days I was sick and didn’t eat at all.

Overall, a pretty poor start to our journey, but we eventually made it to Dar. The only redeeming qualities of the train ride were the amazing views of Tanzania from the train. When I wasn’t getting sick I was sticking my head out the window to take a peek at the gorgeous landscape. We only spent one night in Dar, which to be honest, was fine with me. It’s a very crowded and somewhat unnerving city. I did find all the street food and sweets delicious, and sounds from the mosques beautiful, but probably wouldn’t have wanted to spend more than a day or two there. The streets are narrow and actually remind me a bit of New Orleans with all the iron balconies, but with a very Islamic flair.

Arriving in Zanzibar was so refreshing. The water was so blue and clear, it felt like true paradise. We had a little bit of trouble with taxis and hotels on the island, but overall things were resolved. Our first few days we spent on the north part of the island in Nungwi. Very glad we started there because it gave us a chance to relax and chill on the beach. Other than the Maasai and other hustlers on the beach, we got to truly relax. Much needed after so many transitions, new and sometimes difficult experiences in Zambia. We drank, played in the ocean, ate good food, and one of my favorite experiences was feeding the sea turtles at a local sanctuary. We walked to a sea turtle sanctuary and got to put our feet in the water and fed seaweed to the dozens of turtles that are kept there.

Our last days we spent in Stone Town, an older part of the city full of narrow passageways, amazing crafted wood doors, plenty of street cats, beautiful sunsets, and more amazing food and drink. We even managed to take a tour of one of the spice farms. A better experience than I thought it would be. For our spice tour we managed to meet up with a couple other volunteers and a random French couple. We walked through the jungle finding all the different spice plants, smelling them, tasting them and guessing what they could all be. It was surprising how little you actually recognize the spices we buy and eat every day when you see them in their natural form.

Overall, our small group had an amazing experience in Tanzania. Every day I feel privileged and grateful for the opportunity to have all of these amazing experiences. If you had asked me even a few years ago if I would be living and traveling all over Africa, I probably would have scoffed at such a ludicrous statement. It has not been easy getting to this point and travel can be draining, exhausting and frustrating, but I’m so glad that I decided to be a little bit unreasonable and make travel a priority in my life.