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May 12, 2007

I still love drinking tea in public spaces

Zanzibar still has active public spaces, and dotted around the city you can find men (yes, it is a gendered activity) clustered together around a tea or coffee kettle enjoying spiced tea and snacks (peanuts with gooey sweet stuff). Oblivious to the fact that it’s sort of a men’s place/time, I sat down at this tea spot and ended up spending hours chatting (in Swahili) with these guys. And of course, I immensely enjoyed sipping deeeeeelicious tea in these cute little cups!

I had a great conversation with this guy about the imbalance of education and resources between Africa and the West, and what we can do about it. One of my lessons learned is just the pure power of a good education... I think this is one of the most important things we can "help" with around the world.... (just HOW to do it is the question, but that's for another time).

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