On Monday Iain left us for London. A quick trip to the airport and some more cashews later, we were only 4 and we were left to get on with our projects sans Iain. Tearful goodbyes were said but the next day a successful medicine Africa session reminded us that we could continue without the IT expert and that students were still as keen as ever to get involved. Website creation continued at a fast pace and we finally got permission to embark upon a survey of sexual health provision in Mtwara.
Satisfied that we’d had a productive week, we sat down to look at our timetable over the next 2 months and realised that we had only one opportunity to go to Zanzibar before Ramadan without going in the last weeks the first years were at COTC... It was that weekend. So to the bus stop we went to arrange tickets! Alas, tickets were sold out but our local lead, Dr Shengena thankfully managed to arrange for us to make the 10 hour journey by car (less comfortable than it sounds with three of us across the back and no leg room!)
None the less, after waking up at 3am, we arrived in Dar safe and sound and booked our ferry tickets. Before bed there was just time to sample our first Zanzibar pizza (kind of like a Cornish pasty but flat and with a thin dough coating) and get some ICECREAM. After a month without dairy, this was an emotional time for all of us and a recurring theme of Zanzibar.
Saturday morning was another early start in order to catch the ferry over to Zanzibar and Stonetown where we stayed throughout our trip. The waters were calm and we made it there without any seasickness, something we would later come to appreciate. We checked in at our hostel and made our way out to take in the sights and sounds of Zanzibar, trading hub of the Indian ocean, melting pot of cultures, peoples and history, best shopping in Tanzania . Shirwa was especially excited to try his first Zanzibar spiced tea and with one sip, all hope of him relenting his constant talk of Zanzibar once we finally visited evaporated. We spent the rest of the day visiting the market and the old fort as well as the former slave market and the house of wonders, a museum in the old Omani palace.
Satisfied that we had seen the requisite amount of proper culture on Saturday, Sunday was spent swimming with dolphins and spotting monkeys in the Jozani forest. Our foray into dolphin scouting proved unexpectedly adrenaline-fuelled and has been described by all as a mixture of nausea and thrill in equal measure. Cries of ‘mask and fins! Mask and fins! They are here! Jump Jump!’ rang out against the choppy sea as the team were encouraged to drag their eyes from the horizon (‘it’ll stop the seasickness, I promise!’) and fling ourselves overboard. An experience not to be missed but for some, never to be repeated.
Sunday evening we visited the famous Mercury restaurant and bar, named after Queen’s Freddie Mercury, probably zanzibar’s most infamous export of the C20th and followed it up with some street food from the picturesque food gardens along the coastline.Then more chai (obviously). More ice cream. Even chapattis with nutella which we could almost convince ourselves were pancakes. And as we enjoyed some of Zanzibar’s finest street food, we heard the sounds of the Omani cultural festival emanating from the old fort and stopped by to witness the year’s most dazzling display of music, dancing and fashion, the perfect send off before our ferry the next morning.
Vita
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