Things to Do in Zanzibar When You're a Kid

If you're a kid in Zanzibar, you're living the good life. There's no shortage of fun things to do. You could...

Peer out of your window at tourists taking photographs-


Play street soccer...

... or beach soccer

... or capoeira


Hang out on a scooter-

Cruise the waterfront on bike-



Roll a wheel down a beach-

Deja Vu?

When it comes to traveling, I've always been apprehensive about revisiting places that I've traveled to in years past. Memory is fluid and ethereal- how can the experiences of today possibly compete with the incredible ones (or at least how I remembered them to be) that took place so many years before? Would the water be as blue, the sunsets as golden, the people as friendly? And the overall feeling of a place be as exotic and romantic as what I imagined and remembered it to be like? Of course the people that I experienced it with would never be the same, but what about the place?

Photos of Zanzibar from 2000:
Public Transportation-

Dolphin Tour-


Zanzibar is one my special places in the world, one where my memories loom so very large that they may be more a product of my imagination than actual events. It's somewhere that I've always dreamed of returning to, and it's close to a decade to the day since I was last there. I'll let the photos say the rest.

Zanzibari Wood-carved Door-


Like a painting-


Mr. Walker, peanut salesman


Sunset on Nongwe Beach-

Slum Upgrading

According to the United Nations, over 1 billion people live in slums. With the global increase in movement from people from country-side to urban cities following WWII, the number of slum residents is expected to double over the next 2 decades. Some slums approach a million residents such as that of Dharavi in Mumbai, India.

The process of slum upgrading has both practical and ethical development components. On the practical side, there's a question of what a healthy community needs. Things that we take for granted, such as running water, sanitation, roads, and street lighting need to be put in place. All the other things that make a healthy community, such as commercial shops and markets, schools, banks, also need to be considered. Buildings need to be upgraded as they may have been built from whatever material was available and affordable.

Kosovo slum, Nairobi, Kenya-


Often, getting water for washing, cooking, and cleaning is a daily chore. Water access may come from a community tap spliced off a main city line. Slum residents may spend 15 minutes to fill a 20 liter jerrycan and have to pay costs that far exceed which rich neighborhoods have to pay for their water tanks. Water access is just one example of the many injustices slum residents endure daily.


In addition to the practical, there's a human rights issue. What's the use of implementing "upgrades" if the slum residents don't have secure land tenure? Residents may be living on government or private land for decades and without even a moment's notice they could be evicted and their homes demolished. Furthermore, slum upgrading is a process attempting to establish equity. But it may not be equitable for all. If a new road is put in place, where will it go and who will lose their homes? There are no simple solutions...

A-ok

Next Stop: Kenya

On my way to Kenya for a slum redevelopment project with other students from UC Berkeley. Stories and photos to come...