Cultural Reflection

Closing chapters with ocean breezes and heartfelt farewells This week featured a lot of travel and a lot of fun. As a reward for our...

Final fieldwork, deep connections, and the bittersweet joy of departure Every week seems to be the best week of the trip. This week was incredible and maybe one of my favorites. This was our last week at our field site and we had a lot of wrapping up to do with our research.  Since our weeks here start on Saturday, we started our week on safari!! In classic Kate Glass fashion, I waited until the last weekend to go on a safari, even though I had been talking about it for m

Integration, identity, and the quiet power of being seen Our week started out with a “lie in” where we just lounged and read, treating...

A week of emotional lows, communal highs, and the slow climb forward This week was a rollercoaster unto itself. All week we experienced mixed feelings of excitement and apprehension about the incoming group of Americans from UF on the study abroad. We found out late on Sunday that Monday was a public holiday (Saba Saba) and we may not be expected to go to work. With that knowledge, we stayed up late with our friends watching a movie. The next day, we planned to have lunch

Finding connection through food, games, and shared stories Our week, which for all intensive purposes, starts on Saturday and we...

Reflections on end-of-life care and the quiet dignity of Tanzanian families This week was less easy for me as I was sick for the...

From surprise dinners to Peace Corps adventures, embracing the unknown Our week here started with a bit of an adventure we never saw coming. On Friday night, we were kindly invited to a “house” dinner by the owner of our hostel, Erick. Still learning the ropes of kindness and obligation here in Iringa, we accepted, knowing nothing expect it was a meal we probably wouldn’t have to buy ourselves. By the end of the night, we had met the equivalent of Tanzanian Jeff Bezos, a man

The messy magic of settling in and showing up Our first week here has been a lot. A lot of good, a lot of food, a lot of fun, a lot of tiredness. We left Tampa on Thursday, 6/5, but didn’t arrive until Saturday, 6/7, so I suppose it hasn’t actually been a week yet. We had tumultuous travel days, from preparing to answer questions at 3 am in Dar, to being woken up and asked to move rooms 4 times over 48 hours. Lucy and I enjoyed our time in Dar, although I noticed she was st