Zanzibar

Nothing quite captures the luxury of being an ex-pat in Tanzania like weekends in Zanzibar. How many people can say they're going to Zanzibar for the weekend in the first place? Add to that discounted resident rates for flights and luxury resorts and one can start to feel pretty entitled. Of course, at this stage I am speaking with some perspective, as I haven't been to Zanzibar for over 10 months and have recently realized that if I want to go back, I won't get the resident rates.

During my tenure in Tanzania, I made five trips to the Zanzibar archipelago. That includes five trips to the largest island in the group, Unguja, and one trip to the more rebellious island of Pemba. Unguja is the island most people think of when they think of Zanzibar. Indeed, most people, at least people who are not from Zanzibar, just call Unguja "Zanzibar".

Each of my trips to Zanzibar was a little bit different. They were each different lengths and involved different destinations and travel partners. There were the scuba diving trips and the lay on the beach trips and the exploring the UNESCO world heritage site of Stone Town trips. In fact, I even attended a wedding in Zanzibar.

According to Wikipedia, "Arab and Portuguese traders visited the [Zanzibar archipelago] in early times, and it was controlled by Omanis in the 18th and 19th centuries. Britain established a protectorate (1890) that became an independent sultanate in December 1963 and a republic after an uprising in January 1964. In April 1964 it joined Tanganyika to form a new republic that was renamed Tanzania in October 1964. (Frommers, 2002) The capital of Zanzibar, located on the island of Unguja, is Zanzibar City, and its historic centre, known as Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site." Zanzibar has a bit of a dark history, as it was East Africa's main slave-trading port during the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the mid-19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing annually through the slave markets of Zanzibar.

I made my first trip to Zanzibar in August 2009. I'd been in Arusha for over three months and decided that it was time to get to the beach and also to try scuba diving again, as I hadn't been since 2007 when I received my open water certification during a one week trip in the Red Sea. I headed to the village and beach of Matemwe, located on the northeast corner of Unguja. This would be the first of three trips to Matemwe. I ended up at Matemwe Beach Village, a pleasant resort with an onsite dive center, a beautiful location on the beach and a laid back but upscale atmosphere. I went alone, and I enjoyed every second of my time there.

While this first trip to Zanzibar made an impression in many ways, my favorite moment probably came on the last day. I had decided to take a walk on the beach with my iPod. I was walking along, listening to music, and enjoying the view when I came upon a group of little girls between approximately 6 and 10 years old (the girl below was NOT one of them). They ran up to me and started speaking to me in Swahili. Now my Swahili at this stage was extremely basic, so I really don't know what they were saying. But then they asked in English for a pen. (This is pretty common. Kids in Tanzania are always asking foreigners for pens. With this in mind, I had my parents bring some pens from the US when they came to visit, and we gave them all away in less than an hour in a village near Moshi.) Of course, I didn't have a pen because I was wearing a swimsuit and a kikoi (swahili sarang) and carrying an iPod.

Then the girls pointed to my iPod and wanted to listen. Now, I wasn't really listening to kid friendly music at the time. I think it was something like Rufus Wainwright. But I agreed, and handed one of the earbuds to one of the girls and the other to another one. They listened but weren't that interested. Then I got an idea, and I changed the song on my iPod to Magic System's "Premier Gaou". Now for those of you who don't know, Magic System is a Congolese pop group, and Premier Gaou is a staple of dance parties across Africa.

The change in the girls' reaction to the music was immediate. They went from unimpressed to dancing and fighting each other for a turn to listen. I watched smiling as they passed the earbuds around and tugged at each for their turn. And then, suddenly one of them handed one of the earbuds back to me, and from her expression, I could tell that she wanted me to listen and to dance with them. Which of course I did. We continued this way until the end of the song, at which point they handed the earbuds back to me, and we continued our separate ways. Obviously, I never found out who those girls were or what their lives are like, but they made an impression on me, which I hope I never forget.

My second trip to Zanzibar was in October 2009. This time, I stayed for a week. I began the trip with activities related to the wedding of two friends, who I knew from Eritrea and later Sudan. I met the wedding party on the beach in Paje, on the east coast, and then returned to Stone Town for the actual wedding ceremony. After the wedding, my parents met me in Stone Town. This was my parents' first trip to the African continent, and Zanzibar was the first thing they saw. What a strange introduction!! Anyway, with my parents around, I actually tried a number of touristy things I had not done previously. In addition to exploring the historic sites in Stone Town, we also went to the Jozani Forest to see the Red Colobus Monkeys, who live no where else on earth but this tiny forest on Zanzibar, and on a tour of a spice farm. The spice tour was particularly funny, and resulted in photos like this one.

I returned to Zanzibar again in December 2009, when my friend Emily came to visit, and in July 2010, with a friend from the ICTR. Both of these were trips to the beach. One included diving and the other included snorkeling. Both involved a lot sunbathing and cocktails. Not a bad deal!

But it took me until December 2010 to make it to Pemba Island. I had been dreaming about diving off of Pemba from the moment I arrived in Tanzania. Back in Sudan, a friend had told me that Pemba was great for diving, and I had to try it. So, for Christmas 2010, I joined three colleagues from the ICTR for an epic weekend of drinking and diving on the north coast of Pemba Island, capped off by shopping in Stone Town on our way back to Arusha. On this trip I learned that scuba diving and a hangover do not mix, met a guy who was working in Juba, saw some amazing sea life, and ate a Christmas turkey dinner on the beach. Priceless!