zanzibar...

i just got back from a 3 week work stint in zanzibar...it's an island off the east african coast, part of tanzania. spent most of my time working (including weekends, veterans' day, and thanksgiving), so i actually didn't get to do too much outside of that, but the work was interesting...we were analyzing surveillance data that had been collected on certain populations in zanzibar and reporting to various stakeholders, including government, ngos, and representatives of these high-risk groups. won't go into detail here, but it was definitely an interesting lesson on hiv/aids in the context of zanzibari culture and islam.

this is the plane i took from dar es salaam (mainland) to zanzibar...
got a great view from the window of the plane...met up with abi, a girl from my program based at cdc tanzania in dar...had a good time hanging out in zanzibar, and at the end of my trip, spent some time meeting with her and other staff at the cdc tanzania offices. so the first week, we were training local staff on how to analyze their data and put together a report. this is the view of the beach from the conference room where we spent 8 to 10 hours a day...
this is the view after work...a different beach that i got to visit for a few hours one day...stonetown is the main city in zanzibar...known for a mixture of architectual influences.
i had a good time, but it's nice to be back. so far, haven't been too jet-lagged (fingers crossed), so now i'm watching the big game...it's halftime, so i hope that we pull off a win. i love that they keep on showing "the play," this year being its 25th anniversary. hope we can pull off a win this year...i really should be preparing for some presentations i have to make at a conference this week...argh.