A spicy destination: Zanzibar

What can I say about Zanzibar in a nutshell?  For one thing, it is every bit the paradise island that it claims to be with its white sand beaches, bath-temperature azure seas, exquisite seafood and a laid-back island culture.

Arrival in Stone Town

Upon arriving in Stone Town, I met up with the rest of our contingent that had travelled a few days earlier.  Together we hired a van to take us across the island to Bwejuu, where we were planning to stay for a few days.  About halfway through our journey, one of the tires blew out, so we waited for a while until a replacement was found.  Naturally, there was no spare tire in the van – too easy.

Transportation difficulties.

Bwejuu was a great spot to spend a few days relaxing on the beach and getting to know everyone a little better.  I enjoyed some delicious dishes, including grilled kingfish, octopus & spinach washa washa (spicy), and savoury pilau rice.  One day, a few of us took part in a Swahili cooking demonstration in a village home, where we learned to make fish in coconut sauce and chapatis.  The chapatis take a great deal more effort than one would think – to make a proper chapati, the dough needs to be rolled out, rubbed with butter, stretched, coiled like a cobra, rolled out again, and then individually fried in oil while folding the dough in various configurations.  Despite the effort, the results were exceptionally tasty.

Learning to make chapatis.

Shredding coconut in the special coconut shredder seat!

The fruits of our labours. Divine.

The beach at Bwejuu was an enormous delight by night too.  With the Indian Ocean stretching out into inky blackness and very few lights on shore to spoil the view, the clear skies revealed their starry splendour.  However, since this is the Southern Hemisphere, I was a bit at a loss to identify constellations other than unmistakable Orion.  Others pointed out the Seven Sisters, and I took an educated guess at the Southern Cross.  From my experience, looking up at a field of stars can (and often does) provoke deep conversation; at one point, I found myself answering genuine questions about the birth and death of stars, the nature and number of galaxies, and details on what constitutes a shooting star.  The contents of the “professor's lecture” were of course fully credited to the late Carl Sagan and his brilliant book, Cosmos.

My guess is that the cows came for the natural salt-lick!

Great place to read and relax!

My shirt was almost camouflage in this tropical paradise.

A little bit of nightlife!

Cosmpolitan Africa: Dar es Salaam

Though I only spent a few hours in Dar es Salaam, I found it a very pleasant and interesting city. Dar es Salaam, while not the political capital of Tanzania, is most certainly a commercial and cultural capital. With a name bestowed by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1860 that means “Haven of Peace”, I also hope that it is a place where all people continue to get along.

Quite unlike Lusaka (sorry Zambia), Dar es Salaam has a proper, lived-in downtown, with a radial grid of streets centering on the port area. The streets positively bustle with pedestrians, hawkers, bicycles and and other vehicles. The centuries-old layers of cultural influence are readily apparent, with Swahili, Persian, Arabic and Indian shops lining the streets. Of course, it took some time to get used to the new greetings I heard – my Tonga “Mwabuka buti!” was rather useless in a place where everyone greeted me with a friendly “Jambo!” or “Mambo vipi!” Crap, what am I supposed to say now!?

Cool Art Deco architecture.

House of worship

 

Dar es Salaam City Hall

 Within the most recent century, Tanzania has been both a German and then a British colony and those influences were also readily apparent as Christiane and I walked around downtown. The buildings from the German colonial period have retained a lot of their funky Art Deco-Bauhaus style, which I really enjoyed. The impressive St. Joseph's Cathedral, right near the waterfront, was built by German missionaries. In the harbour, it was also cool to see the hulking ocean-going ships loading and unloading their high stacks of colourful sea containers.

Dar es Salaam skyline.

Dar es Salaam is one of Africa's busiest ports.

After spending a fun (though admittedly rather hot) morning walking around, I boarded the sleek and sophisticated fast ferry to Zanzibar.

The Tazara Christmas Express

Christmas had an entirely different feel this year. Not least of which was the temperature – I've never before worn shorts, t-shirt and sandals on Christmas Day. That was definitely a treat!

On December 24^th, I embarked on an enchanting and relaxing 51-hour train trip from Kapiri Mposhi, Zambia to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania with a small group of friends. The TAZARA (TAnzania-ZAmbia Railway Authority) train runs twice weekly between the two destinations, stopping in several towns and villages on its picturesque meander though the countryside. Our ultimate destination was to be the idyllic island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean; however the journey was almost as fascinating and alluring in its own right.

Home for 51 hours

Since we were travelling over Christmas, we couldn't ignore the need to celebrate. Friends Ben and Evelyn brought a gourmet spread of finger foods, along with battery-operated mini-lights and Christmas decorations, so that we could have grand little party in their compartment on Christmas Eve. After dinner, we broke out the iPods and battery-operated speakers so that we could belt out the Christmas tunes. I had “jokingly” been pre-appointed as Santa Claus, but I took the job seriously and brought a few highly appreciated presents for everyone. Christiane broke out her reindeer antlers so that she could partake in all the reindeer games, unlike poor Rudolph! At the train station in Kapiri Mposhi, we also met and “adopted” Amanda into our little family celebration. It was a Christmas celebration that I'll remember forever.

Christmas Eve celebration!

Christiane and Ben grooving to the music.

Evelyn displaying her Christmas castanets.  "Feliz Navidad" ala Jose Feliciano simply needed more percussion in our view.

The rest of the ride was interesting and relaxing. The countryside changed a fair bit as we moved northeast from the highlands of Zambia toward the tropical coastline at Dar Es Salaam. I was really impressed with the farms in Tanzania, which seemed to be either neater or just more intensive than those in Zambia. As we passed through the various stops, the produce offered up to us at the windows also changed. At some point, coconuts and divinely delicious pineapples became available alongside the mangoes and bananas. Yum!

Traveling through the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania.

Border town of Tunduma, Tanzania

Fresh fruit?  Five mangoes for the equivalent of 20 cents?  Yes please! 

The border crossing was a bit of an event too. At the last station in Zambia, the border agents came on to put exit stamps in the passports. After the border agents came through, the money changers boarded the train to frenziedly exchange US dollars and Zambian kwacha for Tanzanian shillings. Fortunately Ben had checked the exchange rates before getting on so that we could negotiate better rates. The conversions took a bit of getting used to at about $1 for every 1350 shillings. Then came the cell phone agents to sell Tanzanian telephone numbers and air time – all part of the process.

The menu was not extensive, but the train food was surprisingly tasty and inexpensive.

Within a few hours of reaching Dar Es Salaam, we passed through the Selous Game Reserve (a World Heritage Site), and saw wildebeest, warthogs and a few graceful giraffes from the train windows. Very cool!

As soon as the train made its last lurching halt at the terminal in Dar Es Salaam, the porters and taxi drivers were immediately (and somewhat alarmingly) knocking at our compartment doors, trying earnestly to make deals to transport our bags and bodies to our hotel. We negotiated what we thought was a fair price but later discovered that we'd paid about four times as much as we should have to get downtown: 50,000 shillings equals about $35. Welcome to Tanzania!

Anyways, the rip-off was almost forgotten by the time Christiane and I tucked in to the excellent Indian food from the restaurant at our hotel. This was just the beginning of the great food adventure that awaited us in Zanzibar!

Compliments of the season!

Though I've known for months that it was coming, somehow Christmas has taken me by surprise.  I just can't seem to shake this feeling that it's July.  Oh right, I'm in the Southern Hemisphere.

While we tend to say "Merry Christmas!", "Happy Holidays!" or "Season's Greetings!", the typical Zambian greeting at this time of year is "Compliments of the season!"  I've tried it out a few times this week and received wide smiles and warm wishes in return.

A few snaps from Christmas week:

Celebrating with Stellah and family

Christmas tea with my neighbours.

Exploring Christmas crackers for the first time!

Ooh!  The excitement of being royalty for an hour!

A lively dinner party crew.

The first taste of boiled tree sap from a faraway land.  Definitely a hit.  :-)

I wish everyone everywhere a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The running club

After a somewhat stressful day, I was a bundle of nervous energy.  From my experience, the best recipe to beat the stress-induced blues is to get some exercise.  So, I decided to go for a run.

While I did get the intended benefits of my run, I got a few others that I hadn't counted on:

1. In my first 500 metres, I got an enthusiastic hug from a teenage girl.  As I continued on, my new friend and her three girlfriends literally fell down laughing.  I must truly be irresistible in this new beard...
2. In a vacant field at the edge of the neighbourhood, some ladies were busy breaking ground with their hoes so that they could plant maize.  One called out, "Come and help us."  So I did.  I didn't stay long, but the sight of a "mukua" hefting a hoe caused further gales of laughter.  After a short while they said, "Thanks, you can go."  I thought I was doing a decent job but perhaps not.
3. At about the halfway point, two young boys called out, "Hey boss, wait up!"  So I slowed down, let them catch up and then we ran together.  With all the children playing out on the street, it wasn't long before our group of three runners became a dozen.  The scene reminded me of one of my favourite scenes in Forrest Gump.  Since I'm now relating the story, I obviously don't intend to keep running until my beard grows as long as Forrest's...

All in all, it was an unexpected and happy ending to a rather blah day.  Moral: We should all run more often.

The urban barnyard

Sadly, due to my suburban upbringing and subsequent downtown conditioning, I've not had much opportunity to observe barnyard animals too closely.  In Zambia however, the barnyard comes to the city.

The rainy season is in full swing here.  When it rains, it rains with gusto - I marvel at how the sky could possibly pick up that much moisture from the ocean and still have so much left to dump on Zambia.  This past week I commented to a friend that I might have to grow gills and fins to survive my morning commute. 

Anyways, with the arrival of the rains, the chickens that I see roaming around the grounds of the BOMA (British Overseas Military Administration) building where my office is located have proven that they are not as dumb as they look; they actually get out of the rain by hopping up on the covered breezeways for shelter.  I am told that the chickens return to their owners at night however, so the limits of their intelligence stop at finding ways to keep dry.  I figure a return to one's owner could spell a sudden and rather bloody end...

Chickens in the breezeway.  Perhaps there is such thing as a free lunch.

Another barnyard phenomenon was discovered on one of my recent community walking tours.  We actually found a small piggery in someone's yard.  Though there were only two pigs in the enclosure, the place reeked of manure.  Unsurprisingly, the neighbours were not too pleased about the situation.  The owners promised to remove the pigs by December 2nd, so I suppose a follow up visit is in order.

A community nuisance, to be certain.

In one of the communities on the outskirts of town, we also saw some boys herding cattle through the street.  Somehow, this seemed more appropriate than chickens or pigs, but it's still strange for me to see.  With all the local produce and livestock around, I certainly feel closer to the origins of my diet.

Bovine pedestrians in Kaleya.

An unusual tourist attraction

No, I've not gone batty.  However, this past weekend, I traveled to Kasanka National Park in northern Zambia with a small group of VSOs to experience an annual rite of spring: the migration of thousands of straw-coloured fruit bats.  The bats stop for a few weeks in November-December on their way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The bats are quite large, with average wingspans of about 1 metre.

It was quite an arresting sight to see the bats take to the air, first to "warm up", and then to go out en masse to find food overnight.  I learned from the bat walk (essentially a walking safari about bats) that these creatures feast on mangoes, water berries and a variety of other fruits.  Unfortunately, the guide we paid for did not show up at the appointed time, so we were taken on the walk by our armed scout.  Since he didn't provide a lot of detail about the bats, we later managed to get a discount on the walk.  This certainly agreed with our volunteer budgets.

The trees are heavily laden with waking bats, who initially take to the skies around 17:00 for "warm up" exercises.

Warm-ups in full swing.

The search for food begins in earnest around 18:15.

We were treated to a lovely sunset on the first night at the park.  Click on the photo to magnify.

 I'm going to experiment a little and post a video of the bats.  I hope it works for you!

The campsite at Kasanka was one of the best I've ever used.  We had our own private toilet and shower facilities, plus a cute little hut to hide in in case it rained.  Fortunately, we remained virtually unscathed by the rains.  The skies certainly looked ominous at times, and we witnessed some very impressive lightning during our stay.

 

The hot bucket showers (yes, hot showers, courtesy of park staff!) were a real treat.

Our comfy campsite was a great place to lounge around during the day.  I forgot how much I like camping (caveat: when it's dry).

Good friends: Dan, Helen and Estelle

Sights and sounds of the office

The office I share with the Deputy Director of Planning is quite open to the outside world.  While there's something very nice about being open to the fresh air and the public, it can be inconvenient and noisy at times.  I took this photo from my desk, where you can see how close we are to the Great North Road.  If I'm not disturbed by the trucks slowing down with their engine brakes, then it's by loud chatter in the breezeway,  people coming in to discuss the allocation of their plot or roosters crowing out on the lawn.  C'est la vie!

It's hard to pick out, but there is actually a flatbed truck rolling through on the Great North Road about 50 metres away.