Traveling the World Without a Passport

Students got to take a one hour trip to Africa today, during EvCC staff member Dennis Ryan's fascinating presentation on Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.

The presentation was one of the weekly Tuesday Travelogues put on by the EvCC Humanities Center.

Ryan showed breathtaking photos of a wide variety of animals, including hyenas, flamingos, giraffes, zebras, water buffalo, and some great action shots of lions and lionesses on the hunt. He also showed pictures of the scenery from the trip and the native people. 

Ryan was in one of many groups of people going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Each group had what he called a “support group”: a small group of locals that carried the traveling group’s supplies, cooked for them, and acted as travel guides along the way in order to make money to support their families. But while the support group is meant to get people up and down the mountain, Ryan and two others in his group had to stop about 3,000 feet below the summit due to altitude sickness.

Dennis Ryan took students on a virtual trip to Tanzania
through his vivid pictures of people, animals, and scenery. 

After leaving Mount Kilimanjaro, Ryan and his group moved on to visit the small island of Zanzibar. Tour guides showed them old palaces and ones that were on the process of being restored. 

Ryan showed a photo of one of the buildings being restored, surrounded by makeshift scaffolding made of thin branches. He explained that due to their lack of funds and supplies, when there is enough money to restore a building, “you build scaffolding with whatever you can find”. 

Ryan and his group also traveled to the restored Last Palace of the Sultan, a spice plantation and a school in rural Zanzibar to donate school supplies to the children.

Tuesday Travelogues are held every Tuesday from 12:20 to 1:20 in various locations on campus. The presentations are free; come on in, sit down and take a trip across the world!

Story by Kelsey Salsgiver