Actually, I just left my Chaco sandals, which is nearly as sad. You ever notice how much fun it is to say Zanzibar? However, I think this will be the last time I use it as the title of a blog post -- no more trips to Zanzibar on the horizon.
We are all home safely (just barely!) and looking forward to a very short week of classes here since we had Monday off to travel, will be going to downtown Arusha on Thursday to tour the Rwandan tribunal, and Friday is a hospital work day == two days of normal classes, and only one week left after that. It's going so quickly!!
Here's the quick rundown of the weekend. Basically, we got to be pure tourists for a weekend. I think the group has sort of hit the collective end of the 'bliss' phase and will possibly be hitting depression. (This according to the stages of emotions while you travel - though I feel pretty good still, maybe just on to the adjusted stage?) We spoke very little Swahili compared to being in Arusha, and we were not shy about being the loud Americans.
Saturday morning we caught what was supposed to be an early flight to Zanzibar from Kilimanjaro Int'l Airport, but it was delayed a good 1.5 hours. We flew Precision Air, but I wasn't suprised at the wait b/c my host mother had told me that Air Tanzania is often referred to as Air Maybe. Directly upon arriving in Zanzibar, we were picked up by a prearranged bus and our tour guides for the week and whisked off to do the Spice Tour. This was an incredible walk through the government-run spice farm on Zanzibar, showing us where everything from Bananas, Coconut, Cocoa, Coffee, Ginger, Tumeric, Nutmeg, Cloves, Vanilla, Pineapple, Cinnamon, Starfruit, Mango, Guava and Jackfruit grow. I'm also pretty sure that's not a complete list. The tour is run very well, guiding us through lush forest and farm land, where the guides stop, show us the plant, let us look, feel, smell the leaves, and guess at what we might be seeing. Then they tell us and we ooh and ahh, taste, enjoy, and enjoy each others' company along the way. One particular plant had us guessing apricots, at which point I guessed nutmeg from the pit I saw. The response? "Apricot trees don't grow nutmeg!"
As we went along, some young local guys followed, making baskets, necklaces, rings, and little woven frogs out of various plant leaves. One of them scaled an enourmous coconut tree using his hands and a twisted rope around his feet - incredible and a little nerve wracking. The tour ended with samples of jasmine, ginger, and vanilla teas and all of the incredible fruits we had seen. It was the best fruit I have ever tasted - by far. No question.
Immediately after the Spice Tour, we ended up in Stonetown, the historic port city. I honestly didn't really understand the tour guide one bit because of the noise and his accent, but the streets were fascinating and definitely very old. We visited an Anglican church that was built on the site of one of the major holding/auction sites for the slave trade. The center of the altar sits directly over the tree that slaves were tied to one by one as they were auctioned off. Zanzibar, incidentally, was one of the last places to abolish the slave trade. To get more philosophical for a moment - this was a very clear illustration for me as to why it may not always be right to defer to local traditions as is becoming increasingly popular to do. How many times have we (as rich Americans, as an educated society, or just as individuals) said 'it's not my business,' when perhaps the victims need it to be our business?
In stonetown, we all found food at the street vendors in the Night Market that was specially there for some sort of celebration - lots and lots of grilled fish, shrimp, octopus, and calamari were the main fare for the weekend.
We stayed in an adorable little place called 'Romantic Bungalows' in a town called Nungwi, at the northern tip of the island. The owner, Eddie, asked that I come back next time I'm in Zanzibar. I think you should go, too. It's walking distance to the cleanest beach on the island, not too touristy, has an incredible free breakfast with fresh squeezed juice from the trees right there, and a great owner with low prices - what more could you ask?
And now I'm being kicked out of the internet room -- so more later...
No comments:
Post a Comment