Blogs from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 7

I currently have three major problems with learning Kiswahili. The first is that there are approximately ten phrases for each thing you want to say, all meaning more or less the same thing. Greetings and commonplaces are especially guilty of this - I have lost count, for example, of how many different ways of saying ‘No problem’ (how ironic), I have come across so far. The most famous of these is, of course, ‘hakuna matata’. The second problem is that many words and phrases have very similar phonetic structures, or in other words, everything sounds the same to my untrained ears. Take, for example, the phrase ‘I ate food’. Simple enough, right? This translates to ‘Nilikula chakula’. How about ‘I am eating chicken’? ‘Ninakula kuku’. ‘I was sleeping’? ‘Nilikulala’. ‘I ate chicken and then I slept’ ... read more

I remember learning to dive on Mafia, a smaller island of the archipelago, about 4 years ago. It was incredible, but I was completely new to diving at that point, so perhaps I got the impression that the whole ocean was filled with colourful corals, beautiful fish, and giant whale sharks. I have since dived elsewhere, and can now fully appreciate the Zanzibar reefs. A typical day’s diving can include seeing turtles, stingrays, lionfish, nudibranchs, innumerable coral fish, forests of different corals, and much more. Even snorkellers often see octopus, squid and dolphins as well as hundreds of multi-coloured and patterned reef fish. Some of the most impressive - Google them - include the juvenile emperor angelfish, moorish idols, oriental sweetlips, juvenile spotted sweetlips and regal angelfish. Moorish idols, two-bar anenome fish and palette surgeonfish represent ... read more

My dad remains convinced that I am living on Azkaban. This makes me slightly sad for two reasons. Firstly, that my dad readily attributes criminal tendencies to me. Secondly, it reminds me that at the ripe old age of 23, I have yet to receive my Hogwarts letter and therefore should resign myself to the life of a muggle. It’s not all bad though. I’m a week into life on Zanzibar, and, though there isn’t a Dementor in sight, there is plenty of magic. White sands, blue skies, turquoise sea... cliched but true. Speaking of the sea, my 89-year old grandfather has, as usual, conducted his meticulous research into my destination, and is worried about pirates. (My mum hastens to add that he is worried about pirates in Zanzibar, not the small Worcestershire town in which ... read more

Like a true Brit, I shall limit my current comments to the weather. Africa is hot. No surprises there. However, it is coming up to rainy season, and is therefore very windy. This brings me to a dilemma: do I stay inside, wearing long floaty skirts and keeping my hairstyle intact but bake in my own skin, or do I find a shady outside corner and let my hair blow itself into a tangled frizzy knot (despite the presence of hundreds of desperate kirby grips)? I generally choose the latter, letting the cool wind brush over me, keeping my core body temperature at safe levels. I use approximately a pint of conditioner every evening, but it is worth it for keeping my internal organs from melting. I also choose the shade because until recently I was ... read more

Zasićen velikim gradovima, u Dar Es Salaamu se nisam zadržao više od jedne noći i već sam sljedeće jutro došao u luku od lud kreće trajekt za Zanzibar. Luka je bila očekivano neugodna, puna razno raznih „agenata“ koji su me vukli za rukave. Uz malo otimanja, naguravanja i ostalog uobičajenog folklora konačno sam se dočepao trajekta, najsporijeg, ali najjeftinijeg. Nakon dobra 4 sata plovidbe na krcatom trajektu, na horizontu se ukazao Stone Town, glavni grad i glavna luka Zanzibara. Iako dio Tanzanije, Zanzibar ima velik stupanj autonomije, pa tako se imigracijski proces i štambiljanje putovnice moraju posebno proći i tamo. Zbog činjenice da je Zanzibar otok, a pogotovo turistički vrlo eksponiran, cijene su značajno više od onih u ostatku Tanzanije. Prvi dan sam odlučio provesti u Stone Townu. Stone Town, nekad jedna od najvećih tržnica robova ... read more