What I have gained this summer

Lingala dancing at this little outdoor bar. This, like lots of the music and dancing in Tanzania, is pretty much exported from Congo.
see all photos »

One genuine appreciation for the dedicated efforts of Tanzanians to make their government work better

One beaded bracelet with Tanzanian flags and AIDS ribbons, given to me by a woman named Sibilina who is living with HIV/AIDS in Moshi town

Like a mining tycoon coming out of a meeting with a Tanzanian government official, I'm carrying invaluable riches out of the country.

About a thousand power outages

More of my favorites on a typical night out with the expats.
see all photos »

About a million potholes

About a year of my life spent waiting for webpages to load

A healthy sense of disdain for the “yacht club” lifestyle that many development professionals live

Just a scotch more familiarity with Islam and its teachings

Who is that nerd reading Stedman's book Ending Civil Wars on the beach? I'm embarrassed that I'm posting this but it's true...
see all photos »

Negative one purse with cash, keys, checks, credit card, passport and cell phone

Positive one life lesson that I really needed to learn

One manual and three brochures on public expenditure tracking written and handed over for translation and publication

Two trips to Zanzibar

One of the offices for the persecuted opposition party in Zanzibar.
see all photos »

Enough Kiswahili words to make a positive first impression on Tanzanians

The knowledge that I can go anywhere in the world alone and successfully find a community of supportive friends

The knowledge that I can never really go anywhere alone since there are Stanford kids everywhere

Fifty terrible pictures of Mt. Kilimanjaro because every time we drove past it my Tanzanian co-workers would stop the car and make me take a picture

Friends working at the European Commission and Ministry of Finance.
see all photos »

One ability to ride comfortably in a minivan designed for eight people with my face in someone’s armpit, my mid-section squashed between five other matako (bums) and one leg hanging out the open door

Two wonderful new female colleagues and role models: a perky grandmother from Washington DC and a steely but warm Ugandan who put families and jobs on hold to work for Pact

A bajillion new freckles

One small piece of Mchagga wedding cake, which is actually a goat roast whole with the head and feet re-attached after cooking

Joyce's adorable son, who is almost spoiled by American standards because he is just so cute.
see all photos »

Three organizational capacity assessments that I was ridiculously lucky to be assigned to perform

Two Zanzibari scarves to give to my host mom and sister in Paris, and two Zanzibari scarves for myself

One review of Pact’s tool for assessing the capacity of our partner organizations, which I also would not have been able to do at another organization with a less-supportive boss

A handful of new friends from the Kennedy School of Government that taught me a lot about development assistance and how to spend nights and weekends when you have a nine-to-five job

Katie and Shaarad, two of my favorites.
see all photos »

A couple hundred pictures of parties that could have been taken in any city in the US

Another fun run-in with my crazy cousin Jim in a very unusual setting

Valuable insight into advocacy and governance in Tanzania through repeated conversations with my supervisor Tweve and other civil society leaders with which I had the opportunity to work

Countless major cases of corruption in the government of Tanzania, from the governor of the Bank of Tanzania embezzling millions of dollars to a minority Member of Parliament getting suspended for six months for requesting an investigation into a suspicious mining contract

Lucas, a drummer who took me and friends to see the Lingala dancers, which didn't even start until 1:30 on a Wednesday night. Now what does that say about unemployment in Dar?
see all photos »

Zero—absolutely zero—punished cases of corruption by upper-level government officials

One draft of a lit review and methodology for an article on civil society assistance

One extremely celebrated 22^nd birthday

A new sense of disdain for USAID’s failure to prioritize actual development progress over reporting and branding

Fifty dollars in late fees on the ten Stanford library books that I brought here with me

Two delicious dinners at the Tanzanian ambassador to the UN’s house thanks to the Bahati project kids

Too many free drinks on my birthday

10 or so books under my belt, from Mandela’s autobiography to Life of Pi to Globalization and Its Discontents

At least 200 miles walked to and from work

One Kenyan t-shirt from my roommate Josh

600 newspaper articles on corruption clipped and photocopied for USAID before I connived my way into more interesting work

An understanding of what happens to democracy when the ruling party has a chokehold on the government

One facebook friendship with a Rastafarian fisherman named Andre

Four pairs of earrings, a wood statue, a kanga, a kikoy, a t-shirt, sandals, a necklace, a letter opener, a welcome sign for my door, one over-sized thank you card, and God only knows what other touristy goodies from my co-workers

Negative five kilograms of luggage that I had to give to a security guard because my bags were ridiculously overweight

About 25 kilograms more luggage than I should have been allowed under the conditions of my Qatar Airways ticket (oops)

One burning desire to graduate already so I can get back out into the field and keep doing this kind of work