Hey Hey Hey J
Recently I went on a short vacation over land and ferry to
the magical island of Zanzibar with 3 other volunteers: Caitlin, Eva and
Deirdre and we had quite the adventure.
We all arrived in Nairobi the day before, slept
at a nice hostel and our day began at 4am. We hopped in the taxi, drove 30ish minutes to the bus stop
and waited for our bus to leave at 6:15. The bus left and within 2 hours we
came to the border crossing. We got our visas ($100 but it’s good for one full
year multiple-entry) and headed on our way after about 1 and a half hours. We
rode on that bus for the whole day; stopping here and there for bathroom breaks
and saw the beautiful Tanzanian countryside. We were surprised because we
rarely saw any towns or people, just a lot of open land and animals grazing. We
arrived late in Dar around 10:45 and hopped in cab to take us to our hotel. We
drove to a place right outside of center city that I had found online. After
getting out of the cab and tried to pay the man 5000Tsh thinking that was
enough; he quickly became very upset because it was supposed to be 5000/person.
We were confused and very tired from traveling and the currency in Tanzania is
in much higher numbers so it was harder to do conversions in our heads. (Really
rough estimates for conversion: 2000Tsh=100Ksh=$1.20ish)We finally paid him the
correct amount and his parting words to us were ‘you will fail’. Thank you kind
sir. In fact, we think there is a possibility that he cursed our vacation.
Witchcraft is much more prevalent in the coastal areas of Kenya and presumably
Tanzania but we’re just speculating because we didn’t have great luck the rest
of our trip hahaha twas quite humorous.
The next morning we took a taxi into center city
to exchange our money and passed two exciting restaurants we knew we had to go
to. Our first stop after the bank was SUBWAY! Yes, Subway. There is only one
Subway in Kenya and it was built a few months ago but it is in a mall that
Peace Corps Volunteers are now advised not to go to anymore. You can’t really
find sub bread anywhere here and lettuce and cold cut meat are only available
in large cities, expensive and I don’t have a refrigerator to keep them in.
Therefore, we were all hardcore craving it and dove into our delicious subs for
breakfast. We followed it up with a stop at Smooch, a frozen yogurt place-yum!!
At last we were filled and headed to the port to hop on a ferry. We paid but
the man took a while to bring us our tickets and so we ended up in this mad
rush to get on the ferry before it pulled away but thankfully, we made it. We
rode first class, I think that was my first time ever riding first class for
anything, and made it to the island 3 hours later. We knew it would take longer
because the cost was slightly less since we opted for the ‘slow’ ferry. We
called our hostel on the ferry ride over and they offered to pick us up for
free, we were ecstatic. So we get off the ferry and see a cute little old man
holding a sign above his head with our name and the hotel name! Another first I
believe! We started following him and after 5-6minutes thought he must’ve
parked far away when he walks right to our hotel after only 10 minutes of
walking, hence them being able to do it for free J We set our stuff down and went to explore
Stone town. It’s a beautiful town on a beautiful island. We walked around for
around 2 hours but we didn’t see what other people had been talking about. We
didn’t see many door carvings, things to buy except the same stuff we could buy
in Kenya and we didn’t see any super old buildings. We ended up eating at the
little local place with delicious food including meat sticks, chapatti, fish,
samosas and classic ugali. We went back to the hotel so some of the girls could
shower since it was sweltering outside. It made me so happy that I live in
Sipili at elevation, where it can get hot but never like that. The coast was
hot like the kind that makes you sweat while just laying there and sticky all
the time…and we went during the beginning of their ‘winter’! While back at the
hotel we said hello to one of the guys staying there and we all heard an
American accent. He left by the time we tried to knock on his door and see what
he was up to that evening and so we asked management to tell him where we were
hahaha. Perhaps a bit stalkerish but the possibility that he was a PC volunteer
was high since we were there on the low season and staying at the most common
place for backpackers and volunteers to sleep at. We also asked management if
there were any bars or places to dance in town and they said they were all
really far away except one. They led us past some winding roads and up to the
top of a hotel where a bar did not await us, but a fridge with some beer in it
did. It was cold though and the night was warm so we hung out there for a long
time. And the guy from our hotel showed up with his friend and it turned out
they were in fact both PC volunteers from Rwanda! It was so neat! I learned
that Rwanda has the best roads in all of Africa, it is land of 1000 hills, it’s
beautiful and they have about the same amount of PC volunteers as Kenya. The
only other 2 main things I remember are that gorillas are their main attraction
but it can cost over $500 to see them and that they don’t hear too much about
the genocide in their villages although they don’t try to bring it up either.
Oh and at the end they said they were leaving the island early to get a head
start on their journey back but the main reason for getting a head start was so
that they had time to stop at the Subway as they passed through Dar. Volunteers
think alike J
The following morning, Easter Sunday, Caitlin and
I got up at 6:15am to go on a run. We both put on tank tops and American
running shorts, thinking that we would be ok in these outfits since we were in
a more touristy place. No no no no. I’ve never felt more underdressed and
scandalous during a run in my life. Suffice to say, if ever you go to a place
that is populated by about 98% Muslims and you aren’t at a resort-it doesn’t
matter how touristy it sounds in the books-you should cover at least your knees
and don’t try to run early in the morning thinking you’ll skip the crowds
because they get up very early to pray. It also helps if you know your way
around and the language. The morning started out great. We turned left and
suddenly found a few bars and a sweet park and old buildings that we’d been
looking for! We ran through winding roads, past cool carved roads and so many
gift shops that we couldn’t find the day before. Caitlin and I ran for 50 min
and then tried to find our way back to our hotel. No dice. Thankfully Caitlin
knows Kiswahili because surprisingly, my Kenyan Sign Language doesn’t do any
good in Tanzania-especially when you don’t meet anyone who is Deaf. We kept
asking people where the port was and we kept getting directions…to a different
port we didn’t know existed until we showed up across from it. So there we were
in a totally different part of town-very dehydrated-and at a total loss.
Thankfully the people were very trusting and we managed to get a ride on their
version of a matatu for about 20 minutes back to a place closer to town even though
we had no money on us. We had no money and no cell phone. We hopped onto the
open bed truck type vehicle (their version of a matatu) with a long connected
bench along the perimeter and a roof on top and no windows, just the open air.
Picture two Caucasian girls with very white skin from the knee up wearing
running shorts and tank tops, sweating, and sitting in this open truck as
children continue to pile in the back wearing head to toe garments as they go
to school. These kids are the cutest things and they all kind of just stared at
us with a bit of confusion on their faces as they check out our outfits and us
in general. We finally reach the end point and realize we still don’t know
exactly where we are but we manage to make it back to the hotel, a total of 3
hours after we had left! Quite the way to start our morning. The rest of the
day we sat on the beach after traveling to North Coast, only an hour matatu
ride. The beach was lovely but everyone’s health was not. One girl got sick in
the morning but was feeling better and then the other two girls felt sicker
than they had the day before. Giardia had hit and chosen its victims. We still
managed to relax and just hang out which was the best option for everyone in
their state of health anyway.
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