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Published: August 8th 2008
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flood!
this is what happens when it rains really hard in town...sewage back up in all Well, the last few days on Zanzibar have been interesting as well as sort of frustrating. First of all, after a full day of errands on Sunday we went to Forhodani Gardens for dinner. This is like the local stands where men grill up fresh fish skewers, falafel (one of my new favorite foods!) sweet potatoes, "Zanzibari Pizza" (basically fried omelets with mayo, meat, "cheese", onion and cabbage...i have yet to try one...or you can get the banana chocolate variety that are really really good!) for dinner. It is really cheap, but kinda sketchy as to how it may agree with your stomach. Up till now, no one has been sick yet. It is a fun way to eat. So, after dinner we all headed home for bed, and in the middle of the night I woke up with a splitting headache. Not fun. I was so miserable that I could not sleep, so I mistakenly took 2 ibuprofen on an empty stomach. bad idea. About 20 minutes later i was throwing up in the bathroom, still with my terrible headache. By morning it had gone away, but I did not sleep very well. Luckily I had enough energy to enjoy
camera: RIP
attempting to dry out my soaked camera the spice tour yesterday to see the spice plantations on Unguja. Pretty cool. We also got to see some old slave chambers and one of the palaces that the sultan built for his 99 concubines! Then we all had dinner at our advisor's house across the street from our hotel. It is so nice to have real food once in a while. We also had our traditional "mango surprise" (mangos over vanilla cake and ice cream...so good!), except last night it was malaria surprise...we each had to show a receipt from a malaria test. We all got one before going to Pemba just to try to catch any cases before we go. Everyone who has had it so far has only been sick for about two days, and the recovery is really quick. Also, we are all negative at least right now!!! Note: if you are ever needing to take malaria medication, talk to me about side effects first. I have some really good suggestions after some of the experiences that some girls have had here. So anyway, today our group divided into halves, the first having a free day, and the other half (my group) going to one of
me
lighthouse on Chumbe the private islands, Chumbe. We took a boat out to the island, went snorkeling, did a transect to survey fish, had 3 lectures, an amazing rice with beans and fresh fruit lunch, and a walk around the island. The island is the only privately owned and operated nature reserve, and it is a groundbreaking ecotourism spot that many places are trying to emulate. It was really neat to see the 7 self contained solar powered-biodegrading-grey water treating bungalows. They were really really cool...and beautiful. The whole education center there is spectacular too. Very neat program there. Anyway, on our walk around the island, we saw some really cool endemic trees and plants, and a coconut crab! Those are a super amazing crab (largest land crabs) and they are nocturnal...so it was quite a treat to see one. However, as were walking on the fossilized coral with blowholes and cool waves crashing up, the unexpected happened: a wave SOAKED me and other girl (we looked like we had just gone swimming) and my camera has not worked since. Not the best way to end a really cool day. I am trying to dry it out in a bowl of dry rice
in an air conditioned room, and am going to just leave it alone for a while. The camera rate of malfunctions/disappearance here is astonishing. Out of 15 people, if my camera does not recover, we will have lost 5 already in 5 weeks. Not looking too good. We think we found the Zanzibar camera curse. The free day back on the mainland sounded pretty exciting too. They had a huge rainstorm that backed up the sewers and flooded the streets. It is pretty much all connected so storm water and sewage water are all together pipe wise. Not good planning in a monsoonal area! So anyway, some of the girls were shopping in town and ended up having to wade UP TO THEIR THIGHS in this gross brown water littered with garbage. The pictures were pretty amazing. Sounds like an adventure that I am glad to have missed!
I got some responses that you could not access the pictures via the link I sent. I will try to figure that out probably sometime next week. I leave for Pemba tomorrow morning early, and will be there for 7 days. Until then, have a great week, and keep my camera
ahghh!
the wave that killed my camera in your prayers...😊
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