In Zanzibar.  Seriously, it’s this beautiful all the time here.  (All the time being the entire eight hours I’ve been here in the highly touristy part of the island.)  

After checking into my hotel and unsuccessfully attempting to hand wash the mildew out of every item of clothing in my backpack, I set out on a quest for some eats.  I stopped at the first restaurant I saw (not Western, I’m proud to say).  Over a plate of the Tanzanian equivalent of tortilla and beans, I met three British med students who invited me to come teach English with them later in the afternoon.  I checked my calendar, saw I didn’t have any plans until Thanksgiving, and agreed to come along. 

The class started off by a tepid discussion of what to do about child beggars in Tanzania which consisted of the teacher reading from an article and saying, “What do you think?” after every few sentences.  He then suggested that the parents of these beggars should be punished by taking away all of their money and the students agreed by remaining silent.  And after that, he turned the class over to us with an introduction along the lines of, “These people will teach you about if statements with obligation clauses.”  I mostly observed from the sidelines and let the Brits run the show, piping up just to inform everyone that Americans don’t really use the word “oughtn’t.” 

So yeah, I pretty much sacrificed a day of my beach vacation to shape young minds.  But, there are going to be about 30 less Tanzanians using “oughtn’t” and knowing that I’ve had that kind of impact on this planet I call home makes it all worth it, you know?