The tide had gone out which exposed a great deal more of the beach.
The view out of my room on the beach.
Me with my crown and purse/basket from the tour.
Steve with his spice tour cap and tie.
Peter striking the 'college president pose' with his cap and tie from the tour.
Never knew nutmeg looked so trippy.
Paintings off all different types covered the walls of shops throughout the tourist areas of the island.
The altar was placed right behind the old location of the whipping post (the circle in the marble).
What a beautiful statement... it was outside the doors of the Anglican church - the location of the old slave trade.
The Anglican Church - built over the location of the old slave trade.
Memorial to the slaves - the chain used is an original chain.
The view from the knife painter's apartment - the large white building was the Sultan's palace before he was overthrown.
Beautiful old buildings every where you look.
Welcome to Z'bar!
Tim with his spice tour cap and tie.
Walking down the narrow streets to the hotel.
Getting off the boat in Z'bar.
The first sighting of Z'bar.
Peter having some fun on the drive to Dar.
Walking on the beach.It is difficult to express our four day journey to Zanzibar in a 'short' blog - I have about four written pages worth of memories in my notebook but I doubt that you would like to read that much here. So I will try to summarize as much as I can.
We left LJS around 9am on Monday and drove to Dar. Once we got to Dar we rushed about four blocks to the harbor. Our boat left Dar around 1 and we started by sitting in the VIP lounge... well it was really more like an area in the front of the boat with a bunch of comfy chairs. But shortly after the boat left, we realized that we had sat down in a sauna. After about an hour, Luka looked over at me and asked me if I wanted to go outside. We went and a short while later PH came out looking for us since everyone else wanted to leave the sauna too. Then we all grabbed our bags and went out to stand on the deck. Well we got to Z'bar safely and made our way down the narrow streets to the appropriately named hotel that we would be staying at - The Narrow Street Hotel. After that we met up with a Norwegian missionary/pastor who works with his wife to foster Muslim-Christian dialogue. They run an NGO called Upendo Shop. It is a place where Muslim and Christian women work together to learn sewing and other things. It is a beautiful venture and it seems like it has had its successes. We also met up with the knife painter who showed us around town and showed us his paintings of Zanzibar doors in a nearby shop and then he took us to his apartament which overlooked the old Sultan's palace (before he was overthrown) and the harbor. After that we went out to dinner and walked around like all the other wazungu (white tourists). Then we wandered around for a bit looking at shops and finally got lost in all the winding narrow streets on our way back to our hotel. [END DAY 1]
We woke up Tuesday and had breakfast at our hotel then we wandered around a bit and headed off for our spice tour. It was really neat since none of us really knew where or how spices grew (we thought most of them grew on bushes rather than trees). We went to a privately owned plantation (since they are more natural - like a forest - than the farms that are government owned) - our tour guide took us around and, despite the rain, we got to see a bunch of different spices (like nutmeg, cloves, vanilla, cinammon, etc). After the tour we were presented with hats and ties for the boys and a purse/basket for me - which I added to the bracelet and rings that I had already recieved. We then got a feast of fruits - jack fruit, papaya, pineapple, mango, etc. Then we went off to a local eatery for some spiced rice and our first taste of Zanzibar fish. Needless to say, we were stuffed. Then we were swept away to head off to the kisiwa (beach). We got to the beach Tuesday afternoon and it was raining off and on. We ordered supper at the hotel and started to go out and enjoy the beach. We ate the rest of our meals in a hut at the hotel on the beach - I had fish for every meal but breakfast. The fish was amazing - freshly caught according to what we ordered. We met a group of about 4 Masai warriors on the beach who turned out to be from the morogoro area and knew PH. It was a nice comfort to see the Masai since they have started to feel like family to us. [END DAY 2]
Wednesday we woke up and it was still raining on and off. We spent the morning walking around the beach and the boys and I went wading around for awhile. After lunch, it was still overcast but the boyys and Luka headed off to snorkel while PH and I stayed back. PH and i spent quite some time walking down the beach, collecting shells, and just talking about all sorts of different things. We relaxed around for the rest of the day and ran into out Masai friends again, who came up and talked with PH for awhile. I was given a bracelet by one of them with whom PH then started to joke about making a marriage offer for me (I should add, he wasn't bad looking - then again, not many Masai seem to be). [END DAY 3]
Thursday we woke up and it was a beautiful day - go figure. We ate breakfast together and then we packed up and started the trip back home. [END DAY 4]
It is tough to summarize the trip - I guess the easiest way to explain it is to say that we spent a lot of time relaxing. At the beginning of the trip, I was very frustrated by everyone always assuming that we knew no Swahili but it is a tourist spot so what shoul I expect? I suppose my constant frustration and disgust throughout the trip was the ignorant tourist. Zanzibar is a island that has about a 95% Muslim population yet people were wearing clothing that clearly would be seen as disrespectful and revealing to a Muslim. We were walking through Stone Town on our first night and saw a group of girls wearing micro-mini skirts and low-cut tank tops - I was ashamed of my gender. It is one thing to wear little clothing on a beach but it is another to wear it through the town where most people are covering the majority of their bodies due to religious beliefs. It made me really realize the importance of intelligent and informed tourism because clearly these people didn't know much (if anything) about Zanzibar and it's culture.
Peace.
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