Zanzibar

This past weekend I got to spend three days on Zanzibar, and it was spectacular! We left early on Friday morning and took a bus downtown to the port where we boarded a boat to the island. We arrived around 11 in the morning, and dropped our things off at our hotel, the Safari Inn. Then we went to a lecture by a professor at the department for marine studies of the University which is on Zanzibar. We got lunch on our own, and then met up to get a walking tour of Stone Town. We started at the Anglican Church which is built where the slave market used to be. The cells for the slaves are preserved in the basement of the museum, as well as monuments to remember those who suffered from slavery. The baptismal font sits on the spot where a well used to be where weak slaves were sacrificed, and the whipping post is marked by a circle of differently colored marble in front of the altar. It was a very powerful experience.

After the church, we walked through the town and got to do a little shopping. I got some great things for myself as well as some wonderful gifts! We also visited the fort which now houses independent vendors. At the end of the day, we went to the House of Wonder which is a large building and complex where the former Omani rulers would welcome visitors. The museum inside was nice, but the best part were the balconies three stories up that wrapped around the entire building. We could see the ocean on two sides, and we could look out over the rooftops of Stone Town, it was quite the treat! After the planned part of the walk was over, most of us walked back through town to get to Africa House. It's a ritzy tourist hotel that has a nice bar, and we normally wouldn't go there except for the fact that it's got the best view for the sunset over the ocean in the city. I even ordered a delicious drink in a coconut for my birthday! For the evening we went to a restaurant on the beach called Mercury's, named after Freddie Mercury who was born on Zanzibar. I had a Zanzibar curry with fish, which was quite the treat as Zanzibar is well known for its delicious spices. It was a really great birthday night with all of my friends here, and I had a fantastic time.

On Saturday we boarded a bus and headed to the middle of the island for the day. We first visited Jozani Forest. We walked through the forest a bit at first, and got to see many types of trees and plants, as well as a few animals. The real treat of the morning was going across from the forest portion to see the red colobus monkeys, which are only found on Zanzibar. We were able to get really close to them, probably because so many people come to see them and they're used to people. It was very cool. Afterwards, we went to the mangrove boardwalk where we could walk through a large mangrove forest. It was really beautiful!

In the afternoon we visited a spice farm and got a delicious spice lunch and tour. The lunch consisted of rice pilau, two sauces (one red sauce with meat, the other a yellow-ish curry sauce with coconut), cassava greens, bananas with some sort of spice on them, and tasty Swahili chai. It was unbelievably tasty! After lunch, we got a tour of a farm. Which basically consisted of walking through the farm from plant to plant, and we got to taste all of the spices and fruits that were in season. Something that was really cool was that we got to try Jack fruit, which I had never seen or heard of. It's the tastiest fruit, and so bizzare! The outside is yellow and bumpy, and the inside is white-ish, sticky, and kind of looks like string cheese. But it is so delicious, I've never tasted anything like it. It tastes kind of like bananas and pineapple, and it's very sweet. I can't describe it well, you'll just have to try it for yourself!

That evening we went to the park to get dinner, and it was so neat! In the park, there are many vendors with their tables set out with all sorts of delicious local foods. Fresh seafood, spices, Zanzibari pizza. There are so many people and it's really exciting. Being able to speak Swahili is really nice, because they're less likely to rip you off. I definitely caught a few wazungu (white people/foreigners) getting ridiculous prices for food. I got calamari in a masala sauce, shell fish, and chapate for 8,000 shillings. That's about $6.50! I also got some beautiful henna done on my right hand, and it should stay there for about a month before it really fades.

On Sunday morning, we walked around town some more and did shopping. I got some really beautiful scarves that are only made in Zanzibar among other things. We boarded our ferry back at 12:30 and came back to Dar. It was a fantastic weekend, and I'm sad we couldn't stay longer. It would have been nice to have just one more day.

On Sunday night we moved from the dorm to our home stays. Luckily, myself and Aimee (my roommate) live in an apartment literally right next to the dorm, so we didn't have to go far with all of our stuff. We live with our host mom and live-in maid, and that's all. So it's just four women in our apartment. It's really nice, Mama is so sweet and caring, and Sofia (the live-in maid) is hilarious. We're trying our hardest to speak as much Swahili as we can, but sometimes it's really hard. Thankfully Mama speaks great English, so we're able to communicate easily no matter what.

Just one more week of classes before October break! The time has flown by so fast, and I can't believe I'll be climbing Kilimanjaro in just a matter of days. Wow.

(I'll try to post some pictures with this in the next few days.)