zanzibah

A local doctor, after showing me the X-ray I forced him to take of my friend who’s jaw (we later found out) was broken in two places and skull fractured.

I’ve started writing a few pieces for Mambo Magazine, an online Zanzibar lifestyle magazine. I’ll crosspost links whenever I get published. In other news, I spilled coffee on my computer and there was one devastating casualty - my one key/exclamation mark key.  My writing may seem a lot less enthusiastic from now on, but I assure you I’m as perky as ever.

One of the pics from an epic bike ride south with some friends. We stopped for a break and rode pretty much directly into an awesome soccer game. Was fun to be a spectator for a while and got some nice action shots of the kids. 

In other news, I’m doing a bit of magazine writing for an online Zanzibar lifestyle magazine, which is fun. First post is available here: http://www.mambomagazine.com/nutshell-guides/activities/two-wheels-and-open-heart

And more to come!

I was warned several times about clubbing in Zanzibar as the most disgusting, depraved, dirty, soul-sucking activity you can partake in - so much so that I made sure I was wearing close-toed shoes to go to Bawani, Stone Town’s only real club. Imagine my surprise when I entered and was immediately reminded of the Raven. Quote of the night was: “Wait, so it’s really that unusual for you to be dancing on broken beer bottles at a club?” Southerners. 

I really suck at keeping this updated. Pole sana. 

Notes from life include:

• It is now the rainy season, which is quite wet. The streets don’t have a drainage system so you often just have to take off your shoes and go for it. 
• I finally got my resident permit! Yay! Things will be cheaper plus I will no longer be here illegally. Score!
• I am going to Rwanda to visit a friend in the first week in June. After much internal debate over the extremely high cost of the permit, I decided to splurge and go see the silverback gorillas in the wild. I am SUPER excited and actually as the price is going up soon and I got a resident discount, it couldn’t be cheaper. 
• In my first real success at work, I successfully nominated my organization for a Green Africa Award! We are now in the running for a nicely sized cash prize, so go me. 
• I suspect my anemia is back, so I ate a real legit steak last night because iron, and also because yum. 
• I now know a guy who knows a guy who works at the Canadian High Commission, so I am officially part of a maple syrup and Keith’s smuggling ring. 
• I just got six mosquito bites while writing this. 

Kwaherini!

Oops, so I kind of forgot that I’m supposed to have a blog. I don’t have a ton of time to write, so instead I will leave photo documentation of the past few weeks as proof that I’m alive, well and still having a great time. Included above are an amazing bike trip to Mangapwani beach up the west coast of Zbar, a trip to the Usambara mountains near Tanga, a hilarious homemade sushi (Zushi?) night, and a terrifying open mic performance. 

Usiku njema!

So, yesterday I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and ride my bike to yoga. It’s about a 45 minute ride each way and a fairly intensive yoga class, so I was feeling quite fit and smug. After you turn off the main road, the road I take to yoga is lined with beautiful old coral stone homes, cute shack shops, big trees in full bloom, bright purple or pink flowers setting off the blue sky, and children playing in the street smiling and running after you. I was also wearing one of my favourite Zanzibar outfits, a long flowy skirt with a boho-y top and mirrored aves, so I was on top of the world as I biked along the Mbweni road. I was biking along happily, saying “Mambo!” or “Habari!” to everyone I met, scattering my good cheer behind me like so many petals down a church aisle. 

Suddenly, I felt a tug. I panicked, but not quickly enough - my skirt was caught in the back wheel of my bicycle. The skirt pulled down, exposing my rear end to the 20 or so Muslim men sitting outside the shop I was passing. Of course, yesterday was bright blue leopard-print thong day. With a short perfunctory scream, I fell off my bike and was caught beneath it. 

In the few moments before I regained my senses, all I could think was a) ouch and b) what are these Muslim men going to think of this? Muslim women don’t ride bikes here. Are they going to scold me? Condescend to me? Judge me?

Help arrived in the form of multiple of these men running over, saying “Pole sana” (I’m so sorry) and insisting I stay seated while they unraveled my skirt from the wheel. To their credit, not one of them laughed at me, though I’m sure they wanted to. They made sure I was alright and even helped me tie my skirt up to scandalous heights to ensure it wouldn’t get caught again. As I was leaving, one of them called after me, “Next time, wear pants!”

Felt a bit bad about making all those assumptions.

I haven’t really been writing much lately, mostly because things have been a little bit carazay. I’ve also been debating whether I should make this blog actually interesting for people who don’t know me (less about me, more about Zanzibar itself) or more like a replacement for those long group emails we all love to hate. I’ve decided on the latter version.

 A lot of drama the past week, none of it personal but all of it stressful, for example a friend being threatened with hot oil. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and immolation was deterred. Otherwise, things have been awesome. I’ve met some really cool people, found Zumba (the fitness love of my life) and got a bicycle (the material love of my Zanzibari life). I also met A JAM BUDDY! Which many of my friends will know makes me extremely happy. Hopefully we will record some awesome videos for the Internet world soon. Unfortunately she’s only here for six months, but still. We’ve been talking about trying to start up an open mic at a seaside café here in Stone Town, because no such thing exists at the moment. I’ve been going to the shows at the Music Academy, which are really quite amazing and an interesting mix of traditional African and modern influences. So far, my social life seems to consist of exercise, eating (hopefully enough of the former to counteract the latter) music, meeting friends for drinks, and doing a ton of reading, writing and guitar playing. Life is good. Freelancing to local magazines and practicing Swahili are my goals of the next few weeks.

Work is slow but good, which seems to be the norm here. My work does such cool stuff, it’s just nearly impossible to figure out exactly how and when the work gets done (which, as I am trying to be a part of it, is really irritating!) However other VSOs assure me that this is the African way, so I’m trying not to stress too much. I have lots of ideas, so hopefully will get included more as time goes on.

Coming up: Hopefully a snorkeling/dolphin/giant tortoise tour this weekend, African-style full moon party in a few weeks, and possibly an overlanding trip to Lake Malawi? 

Sometimes…I miss my fwends.

ETA: Please note that the featured band is Queen, whose lead singer the inconceivably fabulous talent that was Freddie Mercury was actually born in Zanzibar. Ergo, this post is blog-appropriate.

I officially own (and rock) a muumuu.