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Published: November 9th 2011
What a day!
The royal couple has been in Africa for the past few days. They were in South Africa last week. From there they traveled to Qatar, and then on to Tanzania. They spent their first day in Dar es Salaam and yesterday, they were in Zanzibar. While in Zanzibar they were visiting a couple of VSO projects on the island.
VSO is celebrating their 50th anniversary of being in Tanzania this year. Since it is a British-based NGO, having Charles and Camilla here is a big deal for publicity for the event.
I was asked by the VSO Country Director, Jean van Wetter to travel with him to Zanzibar to take photos of the royal couple as the toured the island. Of course, I said yes.
It was Tuesday, November 8th, 2011... A big day for royal watchers but even a bigger day for me because it was my Mom's Birthday!!! Happy Birthday Mama... Sorry I could be there this year, but I am sure your other kids kept you busy, entertained, and gave you gifts you so richly deserve!
The day started at 730AM when Jean and I went to the airport in
Dar to catch the flight to Zanzibar. It is a 20 minute flight and it gave me a great aerial view of the Dar es Salaam neighbourhoods, the amazing colours of the of the Indian Ocean, and then even more aerial shots of Zanzibar island, just before we touched down, minutes away from Stone Town.
From the airport, we headed to The House of Wonders. The House of Wonders is a landmark building in Stone Town. It is the largest and tallest building of Stone Town and occupies a prominent place on the old town's seafront. The House of Wonders currently houses the Museum of History & Culture of Zanzibar & the Swahili Coast.
The royal couple’s first stop of the day was to see the work of ActionAid and VSO, two British NGO’s. VSO’s exhibit was the crab farming work they are doing on Zanzibar. They had live crabs in various cribs, nurseries, etc. to show Charles and Camilla how they are helping the local farmers to farm the crabs, and then sell them to the local hotels on Zanzibar, creating small businesses for the locals.
Camilla came along first and headed for the finished product
(need I say more?). When she was re-directed to the various steps of the process, she was quite intrigued by the crabs. Charles came along and spent more time with the VSO folks who were hoping for some face time with the royals. I was busy snapping photos to mark the event… For as quick as their time with us was, everyone seemed to be quite happy with the morning event.
From our area, they moved on the second floor to see a “malaria bed” and a cocktail reception with the British people on the island. While they did that, we took down all the signage and raced off to the Bababu School, 15 minutes out of town to get ready for their next stop… The story gets better…
And so do the pictures!
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