Getting drenched in Zanzibar

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I'm in Zanzibar, Tanzania now! We left Mombasa on Mon. at 8 in the morning and had about an 11 hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam. The ride really wasn't that bad and for the most part the roads were pretty good. We had been planing to go clubbing our one night in Dar, but nothing was open Mon. night, so we just ended up sleeping. The following morning we had to just explore the city. It was pretty fun just walking around Dar. The city is so much cleaner than Mombasa. It's definetely a city that if I get the chance I want to come back to and spend some time here. People are very nice. Although one of us did have a bad run in with some guys:

Of course the story is about Brian again... he had been walking around with some of the other students and then got separated from them. He figured no biggie... he'd walk around a bit and then just head back to the hotel on his own. While he was walking he started talking to this guy. They talked for about 20-30 min. and then he told Brian he wanted to show him a demo cd he and some friends had made 'cause he thought Brian would like it. Brian was kinda wary about that but the guy started to say how he was buddies with the guy that had been showing him and the other students around earlier (a friend of Athman's) and had walked with them back to the hotel a bit ago. He described what they had been wearing and everything, so Brian figured he must've been telling the truth. Brian thought they were going to walk to this guys house, but he walked over to a car where his buddies were. Brian walked over and ended up getting pulled into the car and they drove off. Soon after that they started going through his stuff for money. Brian only had 500ksh on him and they didn't believe him when he said he didn't have any more (he really didn't 'cause his atm card isn't working here so he's living off the lunch money we get from the program). They took his camera and started saying that they were going to mess him up and just leave him in some field if he didn't give them more money, so he convinced them to take him back to the hotel 'cause he had a friend there that could probably give him some money. He ended up getting his camera back in exchange for about $150 dollars he borrowed from us (and it took the help of some locals) and apparently some punches were thrown (by the locals) but Brian and his camera made it onto the ferry to Zanzibar in one piece.

The ferry to Zanzibar was pretty nice. Was long though, took about 4 hours. Zanzibar is a really nice city. It's small and quaint. There's an SIT Tanzania group in Zanzibar, so we've been spending some time there. One of my favorite things so far has been the rain. Late last night or early this morning I was awoken by really really loud thunder. The storm was right over us. The thunder was sooooo loud it set off a car alarm!!! lol... I've never heard thunder that loud. Last night Annie and I got drenched on our way home from dinner. We had just left the restaraunt and it started to sprinkle. I told her we had to hurry up cause I knew it could start pouring any second. About 2 seconds later it seemed the sky just opened up and was falling on us! lol... we jumped under a door frame to escape the rain. After a couple min. we just decided to walk in the rain. We knew it could continue to pour for a couple hours and we weren't about to stand under that door frame for that long. We were able to walk under some awnings for a little while, but that soon ended and we were walking in the rain. In the few min. it had been raining it seemed the streets had been transformed into little streams. Water flowed over our feet and our bodies were getting drenched by the rain. It was sooo much fun! By the time we got to our guest house we were laughing soooo hard and hardly and inch of us was dry! It was a great way to end a relaxing day. hehe... It's been raining all morning but not as hard as it was last night and I have my rain jacket with me now. =) Well, that's all I have for my adventures of Zanzibar so far. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to tell before I leave on the 14th. Take care everyone! Kwaherini

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