So yesterday as I was leaving the clinic to walk home, I passed by a police station where various policemen aka the military because there is no distinction here, sit around and kinda just chill. I want to use the word laze and be idle, but I don’t want to seem to biased… yet.
So the soldier calls me over and he could not be older than 19 – 20 so my age and he starts to chat with me. We switch to English because I figure if I’m going to get in trouble with the law I might as well hear about it in English and fully understand as opposed to being screwed in Swahili, and the officer wants to know where I work. Like a fool I told him I work over at the clinic nearby.
Then comes the question, “where are you working papers?” I don’t have working papers I’m a volunteer. “where are your volunteer papers?” See I asked at customs and thought I didn’t need volunteer papers, but apparently in Tanzania you need to have a letter from your office saying that you are working wherever, without pay and that you are not making money and not reporting it. Fine, but I still thought I didn’t need papers and because I obviously did not have my papers on me I would need to pay a fine.
What an asshole. Here this smug asshole is standing there with a big automatic sitting casually and demanding money, and all I can think of is, you friggin jerk I’d rather you took me in to see your superiors than pay you anything, may you accidentally shoot yourself cleaning you gun… I’m sorry, I have a violent imagination but really this was injustice and I have just spent 10 weeks of my life dedicating my time and efforts to helping local people, caring for them, living with them, it many ways though I do gain a lot from this experience I am here for altruistic reasons, and now this jerk is asking me to pay him off for doing it.
Perhaps its because I hate feeling powerless, and used. But had I broken the law, been speeding when I shouldn’t have, stolen something, even littered and been caught, I would be a lot more understanding about this and I would have had much fewer qualms about paying the guy off. But here I am, minding my own business and now I’m being called over by the police for a trumped up crime and I have to pay because this is the corrupt system I have decided to live in and I have to play by the rules.
What made me absolutely livid was that amid the guys pathetic attempt to speak English probably due to his inability to pay attention in school, or probably because he’s an arrogant prat who went into the military because he saw it as a way to gain meager amounts of power and abuse them for his own personal gain (yes I am aware that this whole paragraph is just an expression of my bitterness), he said something along the lines of even though there is a fine, if you give me money you can go. Ok great so he wants me to bribe him, fine, but then while I’m trying to figure out what to do, he goes, pay me. This is corruption. This is how the country works.
I almost went ape-shit. It is selfish bastards like this all throughout the world that ruins so much hard work that has been done to foster and develop it. These men and women ruin any fighting chance of improving life here and pushing the population past all of the crap of colonialization, which still definitely exists here. Moreover, political systems are a mess, infrastructure in some cases is none existent and you have evil prime ministers like the recently kicked out one stealing several hundred thousand dollars per day, where does the money go? Nobody knows and while several hundreds thousands of dollars may not be huge government wise in the developed world, several hundreds of millions of shillings would easily, EASILY, build so many people homes here, fix the shitty potholed streets, pay doctors well enough here so that they wouldn’t feel disgruntle about the meager amount they get for the amount of work they do.
I appreciate the privilege that I have, living in North America where such blatant extortion and corruption does not exist. I’m not naïve enough to think that it doesn’t exist, or that it isn’t a big problem in North America (Spitzer, I’m talking about you), but it I like to believe that it is controlled and when someone does commit these crimes they are punished hopefully very severely.
The one good moment of it all was at least I bargained the bastard down to 5000 shillings from his original asking price of 20. But I felt sick when he said slide it in your palm and shake my hand like a friend, it took a lot of will power and my staring at his gun and the 5 other soldiers around me to keep from spitting in his face.
I’m sorry that this is such a violent post but being confronted by such blatant corruption is very hard, frustrating and just plain sucky.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Lights, Camera, Action
This week at the school was exciting, not only was it my last full week at the school but a bunch of documentary makers, documentarians?? Documentrists?? came to film a documentary on the bibi’s at the Bibi Jann School and the Bibi to Bibi program. It’s always exciting to be filmed and interviewed and stuff… but still it was also a bit strange.
Documentaries are weird to me because unless the cameras are hidden, having a huge camera in your face will always change or affect the way people act, what they say, what they do etc. It was odd because the documentary people would always try and get us to stop the kids from looking at the camera, which is hard because of course the kids are going to stare a 6’4 tall white man with a huge camera running around shoving it in the faces and asking them to act natural.
The amount of direction was also a bit questionable. I had always assumed that documentaries just film, people go about their day and then someone films them, but obviously this is not the case. You need to have the right lighting, the right actions, the right everything in order for it to look good on camera. So the question is, how different is a documentary from a movie. How much of it is a fiction drawn up or produced by the directors making the film. I won’t know until I see the film of course and I hope that it does encapsulate the school, but a lot of the footage seems a bit artificial to me.
For example, the weekly bibi meetings generally take place at the bibi house down the road, but for a number of reasons they couldn’t very well film there so it was held at the school. That’s fine, except the directors wanted footage of the bibi’s walking down the street towards the school en masse and then having bibi fatuma greet them. That is a bit weird, because a) that never happens and b) it just seems like such a constructed image of what the bibi program is like.
They also wanted to capture footage of me and my special bond with Dickson’s little daughter, Fettie, so they wanted me to do something where we look like we’re bonding… well ok, I normally feed Fettie and so I went to give her some lunch except they wanted us to sit on a table so that we could be high enough to get good footage and capture the kangas being dried in the courtyard etc etc. So then how much of this is acting and how much of this is capturing true life? I definitely didn’t try to “act” even nicer to Fettie while I was feeding her to portray myself in a good light, but at the same time it just seemed to generated.
The documentary will most probably be a great boon for the school and the program and I am very happy that they were able to film it. More importantly, the various interviews with the bibis will be amazing and shed light on the many difficult and amazing stories that they undoubtedly have, yet I definitely hope that the film shows the true side of the school and doesn’t make it into something that it is not. That I guess is something I need to leave to the professionals to accomplish.
Documentaries are weird to me because unless the cameras are hidden, having a huge camera in your face will always change or affect the way people act, what they say, what they do etc. It was odd because the documentary people would always try and get us to stop the kids from looking at the camera, which is hard because of course the kids are going to stare a 6’4 tall white man with a huge camera running around shoving it in the faces and asking them to act natural.
The amount of direction was also a bit questionable. I had always assumed that documentaries just film, people go about their day and then someone films them, but obviously this is not the case. You need to have the right lighting, the right actions, the right everything in order for it to look good on camera. So the question is, how different is a documentary from a movie. How much of it is a fiction drawn up or produced by the directors making the film. I won’t know until I see the film of course and I hope that it does encapsulate the school, but a lot of the footage seems a bit artificial to me.
For example, the weekly bibi meetings generally take place at the bibi house down the road, but for a number of reasons they couldn’t very well film there so it was held at the school. That’s fine, except the directors wanted footage of the bibi’s walking down the street towards the school en masse and then having bibi fatuma greet them. That is a bit weird, because a) that never happens and b) it just seems like such a constructed image of what the bibi program is like.
They also wanted to capture footage of me and my special bond with Dickson’s little daughter, Fettie, so they wanted me to do something where we look like we’re bonding… well ok, I normally feed Fettie and so I went to give her some lunch except they wanted us to sit on a table so that we could be high enough to get good footage and capture the kangas being dried in the courtyard etc etc. So then how much of this is acting and how much of this is capturing true life? I definitely didn’t try to “act” even nicer to Fettie while I was feeding her to portray myself in a good light, but at the same time it just seemed to generated.
The documentary will most probably be a great boon for the school and the program and I am very happy that they were able to film it. More importantly, the various interviews with the bibis will be amazing and shed light on the many difficult and amazing stories that they undoubtedly have, yet I definitely hope that the film shows the true side of the school and doesn’t make it into something that it is not. That I guess is something I need to leave to the professionals to accomplish.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Tick Tock...
I'm sorry for not blogging in a long time. this is completely and utterly bad of me. Its not because I've been having a bad time... please read that last sentence again carefully mum... there is absolutely no need to worry about me despite my last blog entry which was, I admit, very negative of me. But I was at a low and then after that I was just too busy to blog again. ahah... funny dar busy. sigh... no things are better and I will definitely try and be better
this blog will not be complete until I have written a blog on:
zanzibar part 2
safari njema
wrap up
film crew
----------
todays blog
time is ticking and I only have two weeks left in dar. How do I feel? Pretty awesome actually. its funny, I met this guy from vancouver here named quentin and he said that in Dar you go through some pretty rough peaks and valleys which by this point every ex-pat i know has definitely gone through that, but he also said that when I leave after ten weeks, i'd probably be at the big peak where you feel comfortable in Dar, you can get by with the language, you knows your way around and you don't feel overwhelmed by the city and everything.
SO Friggin true.
here I am now 8 weeks in and I feel a little more comfortable in swahili. I can get by, people will compliment my swahili, i can talk in past present and future tense. i know like 30 verbs... but they are all very useful and evidently flexible ones so they count at least as 60... ok maybe not. dala dalas don't scare me and now look at stupid muzungus getting on them with slight disdain, which yes is very hypocritical of me, but then again I never stood around waiting patiently and saying excuse me in order to get into one. (there was these two silly girls standing just by the door trying to get into one of the busiest small dalas and three dala dalas went by and they couldn't get into any of them. seriously? like honestly you just need to stop giggling nervously and push your way in, not stand around tapping people on the shoulder and trying to step in coquettishly.)
I think a moment of great appreciation hit me in Dar while I was walking down this alley at about 11 am, the sun was hi, the air smelt like fresh cut grass, wild flowers and jasmine, there were big green bushes and hedges with bright flowers drooping down onto the road, the sky was this deep expansive and wonderful blue with small white cloud puffs floating, and this strong cool breeze that was absolutely blissful. it looked and felt like paradise. how could i not enjoy myself. and then looking out the window of our apartment you could see the ocean and just lots of lovely green trees. i had a cup of ice tea, things were pretty much set.
then yesterday we went off to mwenge where they have a big wood carvers market and that wa a lot of fun because i could make jokes in swahili and haggle and get things at a great bargain, and really a lot of people in tanzania are just very lovely, like this one woman who sold me a bunch of earrings and she was just this nice old happy grandmother who joked with me and we laughed. it was fun and wonderful. i've just been having a pretty good fun time lately and now that i'm starting to enjoy and really like tanzania, its time to go.
now is this a good or bad thing?
to be honest, there have been weeks and times here in tanzania where i have just felt like i wanted to go home. or i have looked at my computer calendar and calculated how many days i have left, and how long would it take until i am back in the states. mind you there have also been great times where i'm just having the time of my life and couldn't be happier. yesterday, i'd say i was at the peak of one of those having a great time of my life kinda moments and it struck me that very soon this will all be over.
this to me is very bitter sweet. I've made some pretty good friends here. I doubt back at dartmouth I ever would have interacted let alone become pretty good friends with brian. in fact we didn't. (he's graduated now...) also i got to meet paul who is honestly just a really great, down to earth though he has random very arbitrary moments, and shreya and i have gotten a lot closer than we ever would have. Its just that i've reached that point that it will be sad to say goodbye to my little life here in Dar. I won't be able to see Fetty, Dickson's little daughter who i've bonded with infinitely though I am tempted to just steal her and bring her home. saying goodbye to the kids I think will be the hardest.
But what i am glad for though is that I will be leaving on a high... inshallah. there are still two weeks left and in two weeks dar can always go wrong. but honestly, I hope that I do leave on a high so that when i think back on Dar, I will think back on it nostalgically and miss it. and I share the same mentality with leaving a place as Joss Whedon does with killing off characters. "If you don't feel sad when it ends (ie the character dies) then you've been around too long and what's the point"
I am very glad for my time here and in the next two weeks my ife in Dar is going to get a heck of a lot more hectic so I am just bracing for it now. will write more soon especially about the documentary that's gonna be filmed at the school and with bibi to bibi this weekend and into next week
this blog will not be complete until I have written a blog on:
zanzibar part 2
safari njema
wrap up
film crew
----------
todays blog
time is ticking and I only have two weeks left in dar. How do I feel? Pretty awesome actually. its funny, I met this guy from vancouver here named quentin and he said that in Dar you go through some pretty rough peaks and valleys which by this point every ex-pat i know has definitely gone through that, but he also said that when I leave after ten weeks, i'd probably be at the big peak where you feel comfortable in Dar, you can get by with the language, you knows your way around and you don't feel overwhelmed by the city and everything.
SO Friggin true.
here I am now 8 weeks in and I feel a little more comfortable in swahili. I can get by, people will compliment my swahili, i can talk in past present and future tense. i know like 30 verbs... but they are all very useful and evidently flexible ones so they count at least as 60... ok maybe not. dala dalas don't scare me and now look at stupid muzungus getting on them with slight disdain, which yes is very hypocritical of me, but then again I never stood around waiting patiently and saying excuse me in order to get into one. (there was these two silly girls standing just by the door trying to get into one of the busiest small dalas and three dala dalas went by and they couldn't get into any of them. seriously? like honestly you just need to stop giggling nervously and push your way in, not stand around tapping people on the shoulder and trying to step in coquettishly.)
I think a moment of great appreciation hit me in Dar while I was walking down this alley at about 11 am, the sun was hi, the air smelt like fresh cut grass, wild flowers and jasmine, there were big green bushes and hedges with bright flowers drooping down onto the road, the sky was this deep expansive and wonderful blue with small white cloud puffs floating, and this strong cool breeze that was absolutely blissful. it looked and felt like paradise. how could i not enjoy myself. and then looking out the window of our apartment you could see the ocean and just lots of lovely green trees. i had a cup of ice tea, things were pretty much set.
then yesterday we went off to mwenge where they have a big wood carvers market and that wa a lot of fun because i could make jokes in swahili and haggle and get things at a great bargain, and really a lot of people in tanzania are just very lovely, like this one woman who sold me a bunch of earrings and she was just this nice old happy grandmother who joked with me and we laughed. it was fun and wonderful. i've just been having a pretty good fun time lately and now that i'm starting to enjoy and really like tanzania, its time to go.
now is this a good or bad thing?
to be honest, there have been weeks and times here in tanzania where i have just felt like i wanted to go home. or i have looked at my computer calendar and calculated how many days i have left, and how long would it take until i am back in the states. mind you there have also been great times where i'm just having the time of my life and couldn't be happier. yesterday, i'd say i was at the peak of one of those having a great time of my life kinda moments and it struck me that very soon this will all be over.
this to me is very bitter sweet. I've made some pretty good friends here. I doubt back at dartmouth I ever would have interacted let alone become pretty good friends with brian. in fact we didn't. (he's graduated now...) also i got to meet paul who is honestly just a really great, down to earth though he has random very arbitrary moments, and shreya and i have gotten a lot closer than we ever would have. Its just that i've reached that point that it will be sad to say goodbye to my little life here in Dar. I won't be able to see Fetty, Dickson's little daughter who i've bonded with infinitely though I am tempted to just steal her and bring her home. saying goodbye to the kids I think will be the hardest.
But what i am glad for though is that I will be leaving on a high... inshallah. there are still two weeks left and in two weeks dar can always go wrong. but honestly, I hope that I do leave on a high so that when i think back on Dar, I will think back on it nostalgically and miss it. and I share the same mentality with leaving a place as Joss Whedon does with killing off characters. "If you don't feel sad when it ends (ie the character dies) then you've been around too long and what's the point"
I am very glad for my time here and in the next two weeks my ife in Dar is going to get a heck of a lot more hectic so I am just bracing for it now. will write more soon especially about the documentary that's gonna be filmed at the school and with bibi to bibi this weekend and into next week
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Crossroads
So recently I was asked to write an update about how things are going here in Dar for the magazine Crossroads, which is a publication that the Dickey Center puts out. The Dickey center is the foundation at school that is funding my trip here and that sent me to Dar in the first place.
I was about to work on it today but then I realized, if I were to write it at this moment, there would not be very many positive things to say. I'm not saying that my time here in Dar has sucked, I'm just having a kinda sucky day so I'm going to use this blog as a forum to whine.
One of my projects coming here was to do a nutrition survey. I was asked to do this nutrition survey and I was and am more than happy to do it. I had thought that I would spend the bulk of my time working at the school but with Brian here we ended up splitting up the week so he would be there part time and I would take the other half. Moreover, with Halima (dickson's sister) teaching now as well, there seems to be less and less use for me there. Which isn't to say that I am giving up or anything. I dunno. Sometimes I feel like I just am not really contributing here or doing anything really meaningful. Less so when I'm at the school because there I at least get to hang out and brighten up a few kids days and stuff but at the clinic, with out drought of patients, there isn't really much to do or occupy my time with. So I'm left with just hanging around surfing the internet, or filing. Another part of my internship was to work on that database here. Well the database only arrived a little while ago and Brian and Shreya do a little tag team thing so no work for me. I'm seriously considering just moving over to the school and spending as much time there as possible. That had been my initial intention after all. I had a whole bunch of ideas of stuff to do with the kids aside from teach, but I honestly think the school runs quite well and we already try and pack so much in that its tough to do more. Tomorrow, Shreya is coming with me and we are going to start an Indian Dance class which i think will be a lot of fun and maybe that will be something fun and nice to introduce to the school.
The worst part of today would be that i found out that I cannot proceed with my nutrition survey until I have approval from Muhimbili University. I have ethical clearance to go ahead from Dartmouth but I don't from Muhimibili and that in itself is an arduous process. I'm just a bit frustrated because the work that I have done with the survey is all for nothing now, except I have had a lot of practice i guess. But all the data is useless and I need to start again. I'm just a little peeved because if this had all been ready when I got here or at least underway things would be so much easier, but now I'm not even sure if I will be able to do the survey. I'm just a little annoyed...
either way hope you are all well. I think i'm just going through a little low here in Dar but I'm going out to dinner with Cassie tonight and her friend from out of town so things are looking up. Hanging out with Cassie is always a big pick me up! O I also almost went to Maisha club the other night but felt ill from what I had at dinner at an outrageously overpriced "middle eastern" restaurant... which blew... so i didn't go, but we hung outside and had drinks ie i had a fanta because I don't like beer or alcohol in general (sorry mom i know you wanted a picture of me with a beer in my hand... but i'm just not a fan... such a disappointment i know). But gosh the women who walked by were all dressed like friggin hookers!!! a bunch of the were... but there were like local regular tanzanian girls dressed in small tight dresses with strange holes. it was very uncomfortable and surreal.
I was about to work on it today but then I realized, if I were to write it at this moment, there would not be very many positive things to say. I'm not saying that my time here in Dar has sucked, I'm just having a kinda sucky day so I'm going to use this blog as a forum to whine.
One of my projects coming here was to do a nutrition survey. I was asked to do this nutrition survey and I was and am more than happy to do it. I had thought that I would spend the bulk of my time working at the school but with Brian here we ended up splitting up the week so he would be there part time and I would take the other half. Moreover, with Halima (dickson's sister) teaching now as well, there seems to be less and less use for me there. Which isn't to say that I am giving up or anything. I dunno. Sometimes I feel like I just am not really contributing here or doing anything really meaningful. Less so when I'm at the school because there I at least get to hang out and brighten up a few kids days and stuff but at the clinic, with out drought of patients, there isn't really much to do or occupy my time with. So I'm left with just hanging around surfing the internet, or filing. Another part of my internship was to work on that database here. Well the database only arrived a little while ago and Brian and Shreya do a little tag team thing so no work for me. I'm seriously considering just moving over to the school and spending as much time there as possible. That had been my initial intention after all. I had a whole bunch of ideas of stuff to do with the kids aside from teach, but I honestly think the school runs quite well and we already try and pack so much in that its tough to do more. Tomorrow, Shreya is coming with me and we are going to start an Indian Dance class which i think will be a lot of fun and maybe that will be something fun and nice to introduce to the school.
The worst part of today would be that i found out that I cannot proceed with my nutrition survey until I have approval from Muhimbili University. I have ethical clearance to go ahead from Dartmouth but I don't from Muhimibili and that in itself is an arduous process. I'm just a bit frustrated because the work that I have done with the survey is all for nothing now, except I have had a lot of practice i guess. But all the data is useless and I need to start again. I'm just a little peeved because if this had all been ready when I got here or at least underway things would be so much easier, but now I'm not even sure if I will be able to do the survey. I'm just a little annoyed...
either way hope you are all well. I think i'm just going through a little low here in Dar but I'm going out to dinner with Cassie tonight and her friend from out of town so things are looking up. Hanging out with Cassie is always a big pick me up! O I also almost went to Maisha club the other night but felt ill from what I had at dinner at an outrageously overpriced "middle eastern" restaurant... which blew... so i didn't go, but we hung outside and had drinks ie i had a fanta because I don't like beer or alcohol in general (sorry mom i know you wanted a picture of me with a beer in my hand... but i'm just not a fan... such a disappointment i know). But gosh the women who walked by were all dressed like friggin hookers!!! a bunch of the were... but there were like local regular tanzanian girls dressed in small tight dresses with strange holes. it was very uncomfortable and surreal.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Zanzibar!!!
Hey Guys!
sorry for not updating my blog in a while but I have been doing a little traveling through Tanzania. My life is so hard.
A quick summary:
took a bus to arusha
stayed a night in Arusha and then went on day safari
returned from safari and spent another night in arusha
flew to zanzibar
lounged on the beach and hung out at the music festival
sitting in internet cafe by the crystal blue water
ok now i have a bunch of time to kill so i'm going to write a blog entry.
So Zanzibar. Ah yes, wonderful tropical island get away. Paul, Brian, Matthew, and I all arrived on Friday after taking a plane down from Arusha. there at the gate was a taxi driver holding a sign with my name on it, compliments of Caitlin Myles, my guide and host in Zanzibar, who i am very appreciative of and hope i can repay in some way shape or form... Ah yes, living in Dar has definitely made me very appreciative of beautiful Zanzibar.
So what did I do?
After arriving by plane I was taken to the Aga Khan building just outside of Stonetown where i met up with Caitlin and Adam. From there Caitlin took an early day off work and we went to Beit al-Ajaib, or the HOUSE of WONDER!!! imagine thunder and lightning as you read that, that's how i say it at least. and we got in for free becusae of Caitlin's extensive networking here on the island. We were there to take a look at a painting exhibition by a group of women who do henna on tourists. They were basically taught to use their henna skills and transfer them onto canvas with paints. The building's top floor had a great wrap around balcony and you could see most of stonetown from it. after that, it was clearly time for our afternoon beer, or at least caitlin's afternoon beer so we went off to livingstone's and sat there as the sun was setting one a patio by the beach. also very lovely, a few drinks later and Caitlin's party and I split ways. I was meeting some friends and acquaintances from Dar for dinner at a highly recommended restaurant named Monsoon. Its premise is very lovely. fusion zanzibari local food, you eat it on the floor in this sumptuous restaurant with lots of pillows while someone plays taraub music.
the problem was three hours later, we had just gotten our food and we were pissed. well no everyone else was pissed, I was oblivious and happy as a clam. so while everyone around me got really upset about their meals, I went on eating my octopus in a coconut sauce, and I only really got annoyed when everyone started storming out to pay. it was slightly dramatic. After that we went over to the old fort for the music festival, sauta za busara, and the band as we walked in were awesome. great energy, good vibes, awesome beats, but by about 12, I was tuckered out, plus about to kill myself if I had to listen any longer to the local rap group. it was painful. and so we made our escape and went home to caitlin's place in Bububu. I'm just gonna pause again so we can enjoy then name of her town. Bububu. although the accent is on the second Bu.
Next day, after lazing about for a while, caitlin, adam and I decided to go to the beac. Caitlin's favourite is one at the top of Zanzibar in Nungwi, and that was lovely. we spent the day lazing in the sun, just enjoying the white sandy beach, then I went to find brain, paul and Matthew who were chilling a bit further down with two girls we met from Norway. Ah yes, captured by their norweigian charm. I however have built up tolerance to the Norweigian charms thanks to Anborg. then i went back to my little spot on the beach by a co-op rasta bar where the people who run it live in little tree houses behind the bar. its kinda cool. Caitlin and Adam, tried one of their special drinks called passion under a palm which was actually very very good. and then we sat, frolicked in the ocean and then fled when shit went down between three masai and the rastas.
So a rasta guy walks out and he starts screaming at a masai guy to leave. He's also carrying a masai club and is drunk as an irishman on st patty's day, so shit obviously was about to hit the fan. the two of them start to argue and honestly you had to be pretty drunk to try and take on a masai. Considering that the masai guy was at least 30 pounds heavier and had grown up in a warrior culture that teaches you to fight since a very young and tender age, the rasta was a bit out of his league. More masai and more rasta's came and then the drunk rasta tries to sic his dog on the masai warrior. the dog is a little yappy yellow mutt and yips a bit before running away bored. then two rasta's start hurling bottles, fortunately for us their aim blew and they threw it really hard and it fell in the sea near a french couple, but caitlin, always the wise one gets up and goes, I think its about time to leave. However, as we are packing out stuff to go, the masai and the rasta have now swung their clubs at each other, meaning things are getting really serious, and another masai has now taken out his machete sword thing. it basically ended there and no one got hurt but it was kinda exciting for a little while. Rastas vs. the Masai, its really the zanzibarian version of Westside story. In fact, Michael Simpson, I think you should adapt your schools version of it to match this. just change america to zanzibar, and instead of buildings you can have thatch roof cottages.
And so ends half of my time in zanizibar. need to go, so i will finish it tomorrow or some time soon.
sorry for not updating my blog in a while but I have been doing a little traveling through Tanzania. My life is so hard.
A quick summary:
took a bus to arusha
stayed a night in Arusha and then went on day safari
returned from safari and spent another night in arusha
flew to zanzibar
lounged on the beach and hung out at the music festival
sitting in internet cafe by the crystal blue water
ok now i have a bunch of time to kill so i'm going to write a blog entry.
So Zanzibar. Ah yes, wonderful tropical island get away. Paul, Brian, Matthew, and I all arrived on Friday after taking a plane down from Arusha. there at the gate was a taxi driver holding a sign with my name on it, compliments of Caitlin Myles, my guide and host in Zanzibar, who i am very appreciative of and hope i can repay in some way shape or form... Ah yes, living in Dar has definitely made me very appreciative of beautiful Zanzibar.
So what did I do?
After arriving by plane I was taken to the Aga Khan building just outside of Stonetown where i met up with Caitlin and Adam. From there Caitlin took an early day off work and we went to Beit al-Ajaib, or the HOUSE of WONDER!!! imagine thunder and lightning as you read that, that's how i say it at least. and we got in for free becusae of Caitlin's extensive networking here on the island. We were there to take a look at a painting exhibition by a group of women who do henna on tourists. They were basically taught to use their henna skills and transfer them onto canvas with paints. The building's top floor had a great wrap around balcony and you could see most of stonetown from it. after that, it was clearly time for our afternoon beer, or at least caitlin's afternoon beer so we went off to livingstone's and sat there as the sun was setting one a patio by the beach. also very lovely, a few drinks later and Caitlin's party and I split ways. I was meeting some friends and acquaintances from Dar for dinner at a highly recommended restaurant named Monsoon. Its premise is very lovely. fusion zanzibari local food, you eat it on the floor in this sumptuous restaurant with lots of pillows while someone plays taraub music.
the problem was three hours later, we had just gotten our food and we were pissed. well no everyone else was pissed, I was oblivious and happy as a clam. so while everyone around me got really upset about their meals, I went on eating my octopus in a coconut sauce, and I only really got annoyed when everyone started storming out to pay. it was slightly dramatic. After that we went over to the old fort for the music festival, sauta za busara, and the band as we walked in were awesome. great energy, good vibes, awesome beats, but by about 12, I was tuckered out, plus about to kill myself if I had to listen any longer to the local rap group. it was painful. and so we made our escape and went home to caitlin's place in Bububu. I'm just gonna pause again so we can enjoy then name of her town. Bububu. although the accent is on the second Bu.
Next day, after lazing about for a while, caitlin, adam and I decided to go to the beac. Caitlin's favourite is one at the top of Zanzibar in Nungwi, and that was lovely. we spent the day lazing in the sun, just enjoying the white sandy beach, then I went to find brain, paul and Matthew who were chilling a bit further down with two girls we met from Norway. Ah yes, captured by their norweigian charm. I however have built up tolerance to the Norweigian charms thanks to Anborg. then i went back to my little spot on the beach by a co-op rasta bar where the people who run it live in little tree houses behind the bar. its kinda cool. Caitlin and Adam, tried one of their special drinks called passion under a palm which was actually very very good. and then we sat, frolicked in the ocean and then fled when shit went down between three masai and the rastas.
So a rasta guy walks out and he starts screaming at a masai guy to leave. He's also carrying a masai club and is drunk as an irishman on st patty's day, so shit obviously was about to hit the fan. the two of them start to argue and honestly you had to be pretty drunk to try and take on a masai. Considering that the masai guy was at least 30 pounds heavier and had grown up in a warrior culture that teaches you to fight since a very young and tender age, the rasta was a bit out of his league. More masai and more rasta's came and then the drunk rasta tries to sic his dog on the masai warrior. the dog is a little yappy yellow mutt and yips a bit before running away bored. then two rasta's start hurling bottles, fortunately for us their aim blew and they threw it really hard and it fell in the sea near a french couple, but caitlin, always the wise one gets up and goes, I think its about time to leave. However, as we are packing out stuff to go, the masai and the rasta have now swung their clubs at each other, meaning things are getting really serious, and another masai has now taken out his machete sword thing. it basically ended there and no one got hurt but it was kinda exciting for a little while. Rastas vs. the Masai, its really the zanzibarian version of Westside story. In fact, Michael Simpson, I think you should adapt your schools version of it to match this. just change america to zanzibar, and instead of buildings you can have thatch roof cottages.
And so ends half of my time in zanizibar. need to go, so i will finish it tomorrow or some time soon.
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