Blogs from West, Tanzania, Africa - page 8

Currently, I'm on the island of Pemba, which is technically in Zanzibar. Yet if you google Zanzibar, you'll notice that Zanzibar is actually two islands: Unguja and Pemba. Everybody knows Unguja (Zanzibar City and Stone Town are in it) and that's where I was for my first three weeks here. But on Thursday we took a 30 minute plane ride over Unguja to Pemba and I'm here in the city of Chake Chake until Sunday I believe. Life is a lot different than in in Z'bar City. There's is significantly less tourism here and that makes a big difference. People on the street of Chake Chake aren't as aggresive to sell me stuff and as a "mzungu" (white person) here I get a lot more people starring at me. The pace of life is a little ... read more

We had a few hours to kill in Kigoma because it was too early for dinner and few people wanted to go to Ujiji to see where Stanley met Livingstone. We therefore went to the central market. I was expecting something similar to Mwanza. After all, Kigoma's 30,000 people are as strategically placfed as Mwanza's 500,000. Just joking, but I thought Kigoma would have a smaller version of Mwanza's market. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Kigoma's market, in my opinon, is a real stereotypical "African" market. Kigoma Central Market is a cramped space, less than a quarter of an American city block, surrounded on the outside by real stores with entrances on the street. One enters through a small alley between two stores and passes through an interesting room with long tables. I could ... read more

I've never been car sick before, but the 12 hour journey (13.5 if you count the hour and a half waiting for the ferry) to Kigoma certainly brought me close. I woke up at 5 in the morning (that was 10 in the evening on the East Coast) so that I could get some breakfast and finish the last-minute packing. All went fairly smoothly, especially given the fact that there was no running water! We intended to leave by 6 but were a couple of minutes late. For the fun (and long) trip, we had a 9-person Toyota Land Cruiser. I couldn't figure out how we would all fit until it arrives. It's a good thing we all packed light! Anyway, we were off by 6:15 and made our way to one of the ferries that ... read more

Malawi was fun, though very hilly, but then I didn't realise how hilly the Poloto mountains in Tanzania would be. There was an interesting 8km climb, which took a long time. Reaching the top all the school kids pilled out of class and whistling and shouting "dongle" or "dongler" they ran with me up the hill, laughing and joking. It really was an occasion to make me smile. Those little kids can really run. There has been a barrage of greetings and I try my best to wave back. Anyhow, Lake Malawi was quite beautiful and I took a wrong turning from Mzuzu ending up at Nkhata beach and did some snorkelling. Malawians are friendly people. I didn't see many people eating, except sugar cane, so it's not so easy to eat myself with the kids ... read more

Das Bismarck-Haus ist eigentlich gar nicht das Bismarck-Haus, sondern wurde ebenfalls dem Kaiser Wilhelm als Residenz zugedacht. Da haette er sich sicherlich gefreut, da es wirklich schoen anzusehen ist. ...von aussen, rein kommt man nicht. wens interessiert, schaut unter google, kaiser wilhelm, Kigoma, bilder. da das Internet so langsam ist, koennen wir euch leider keine Bilder hochladen. Um der Berichtigung noch das i-Tuepfelchen aufzusetzen, moechten wir erwaehnen, das der Lake Tanganyika nach dem "y" mit "i" geschrieben wird. ... read more