Time is Everything

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Hey everyone!

Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe on Vuga street, just about a block from where I've been staying at the Mauwani hotel, and it's 450 shillings every half hour (about 45 cents, FYI), but I'm going to try to make this a fast and informative entry, and to put up a few pictures as well.

So, as of yesterday, I have been in Zanzibar for exactly one week. Wow. By this past Tuesday I was already feeling like I'd been here for ages. It might have had something to do with the 5 long flights and 3 long days it took me to get here, but I think it also has to do with trying to learn the language and speaking to the locals for practice whenever possible.

There are 15 of us on this trip: 4 guys and 11 girls. Everyone seems pretty great so far. In fact, with the way time moves here, it feels like they're already old friends. We've definitely shared a lifetime's worth of experiences in the few days we've known each other.

We are currently staying in Stone Town, Zanzibar. The Mauwani hotel is small, but very neat and not at all touristy. And it's also right across the street from our classroom and and Helen's (the Academic Director) apartment. Very convienient. I've been rooming with Susie and Madeline who are both from New Hampshire (in fact most of the people on this trip are from the East Coast). The bathroom is a combination toilet/shower and is out in the hallway (ours is the only one like that- everyone else has their own for some reason). The shower has absolutely no water pressure, but it does have hot water, although I have to be careful not to accidentally ingest any of it- no parasites for me, thanks.

I've actually managed to stay pretty healthy here, even through all the jet lag. With the exception of about a dozen mosquito bites and one tiny sting from a wasp when I invaded his home under my towel on the clotheline, I'm feeling pretty great. The steripen works- I've already used it a few times and it is definitely worth every penny of the 120 dollars I paid for it. I have to drink a lot of water in order to stay hydrated- for some reason it seems to be a lot more humid here than in Hawaii, but that could be because of the dress code.

Zanzibar is a largely Muslim population, and we are currently in the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which lasts until the end of the month. During that time Muslims fast during the day- no water, nothing- and the women must wear headscarves and long skirts and shirts with sleeves, which would be pretty comfortable if it weren't so hot here.

None of us are Muslim, so we, of course, are not adhereing to the fasting thing (although we do wear the headscarves to distinguish us from the tourists). Most Zanzibaris seem ok with this, but there are many who try to convince us not to eat/ drink during the day. Yesterday we were having lunch surreptitiously inside our classroom, and a little boy looked through our window and saw us eating. He yelled "kobe!", which means tortise, and then ran and told all his little friends about us and they all came around to the doors and windows to look at us and shout "kobe!" over and over again, until Said (our Zanzibari program assisstant) looked outside and they all ran away. The kids were calling us tortises because we were hiding inside to eat, as a torise will hide in his shell.

There are lots of funny sayings here. One of them is "Poa chizi kama ndizi", which translated is literally "Crazy cool like a banana"- the word "chizi" coming from the English word cheese, which they thought westerners were crazy for eating. Oh yea, and the word for westerner/ tourist is "mzungu", which we hear quite often when we wander through the bazaar-like atmoshphere is the market stalls of Stone Town, although we would prefer to hear "mwanafunzi", which is student.

So far, our adventures here have included an amazing snorkelling trip to a large off-shore sandbar, a sunken WWII vessel, and a large colorful coral reef off the coast of a nearly uninhabited island called Bawe, follwed by a long scavenger hunt through Stone Town in which we split into groups of 3 and had to find useful things in the area, and to buy an interesting present for another group (our group bought a whole dried octopus and some kind of essential oil from an apothecary-like stall). Nearly everyone got a cell phone, though some got a better deal than others (let's just say I really need to work on my haggling skills...) The shops in Stone Town work a lot like the International Market Place in Waikiki- they sell many of the same things and you can often get a better price for the same item at a different stall- if you bargain hard enough- they do want to take advantage of the fact that you're a "mzungu".

The rest of the past week was spent in Kizimkazi on the south end of the island. On the way there we stopped at a nature conservation place called Zala Park where I got to hold a few different kinds of native snakes, see a monitor lizard up close (and pet it), along with tortises and turtles, and even bushbabies. We also took a nature walk through the tropical forest with our guide pointing out native medicinal plants. On this walk I found a baby snake molting in a tree. I pointed it out to the guide and he quickly grabbed it (apparently it wasn't venomous...) and put it in his shirt pocket to take back to the preserve.

Kizimkazi is absolutely beautiful. We camped there for a few days, on a hill right next to the beach, and watched the tide move waaaaay out beyond a small sandbar about 30 yards from shore, stranding many of the boats in the process. The most exciting part about Kizimkazi (thoguh there are plenty of stories I could share) was the last day we spent there when we got up early to swim with the wild Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins. The dolphins were travelling along the coast and we had to follow them for a little while before we could get off the boat to swim with them. I jumped off 4 times, but the third time was the best. About 4 or 5 dolphins came right up to the surface just a few feet away from me, and turned on their sides to get a good look at me. I swam with them for a couple of yards, but then they dove back down and sped away again. Helen told us afterward that swimming with dolphins was on the list of a book of things to do before you die. Now I know why.

Today we are going to live with our homestay families for 2 weeks. We all met them last night, and mine seem very nice, although I wil have to work hard to communicate with them in Swahili, as their English is limited. I'm excited though. So far, everything I've done in this program has been worth it.

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