Swahili Time

There are a number of boats one can to get from Pemba to Zanzibar. The "fast ferry" takes 2 1/2 hours, and costs 45 dollars (well it costs $45 for wazungu, about 10 for locals). My plan was to take a slower boat ($20, 4.5 hours).. So I arrive in the port town the night before, find the one (awesome) guesthouse on a hill overlooking the water, and in talking to people there find out that there is another boat that isn't really advertised to tourists that is even cheaper, though it is slow and it leaves in the middle of the night and gets to Stonetown in the morning. So I go down to the port to check it out, and amazingly there is a stand right there selling tickets. I pay slightly more than locals ($11 instead of $8), there is some confusion about how much to charge me, and the woman gives me an official looking ticket with only a couple things scratched out in pencil, and writes in the check-in box: 18:00, and departs: 9:00..

But I am getting ahead of myself. I should first explain that in Tanzania (and I believe Kenya and other places) there is something called "Swahili Time". It is not a state of mind like "island time" or "african time" where everything is late (though things are often late). There is actually an alternate clock where our 6am is 12:00, it is still a 24hour system, but everything is off by 6 hours. They actually do the same thing in Ethiopia (Habesha Time), but they had a different calendar and everything (13 months in a year, and they were like 7 years behind). However in Ethiopia they were a lot more consistent about it, when people told you times, especially if it was in Amharic it was usually Habesha Time. In Tanzania the problem is lack of consistency (it's not that hard to add or subtract six hours, but you have to know when to do it). Here I think people are a little more wazungu focused, so they try to help you out by converting, but when language is an issue it can be a little confusing..

So when the person selling ferry tickets indicated that it departed at 9:00, I tried to clarify. My strategy is usually to say the number in the local language indicating Swahili or Habesha Time, and say the corresponding time in English, but with my poor Swahili, it can be hard to tell if everyone is on the same page. I tried to confirm the departure time (The check in time made no sense to me, it was at least 3 hours prior and may have been 9). I had been told that it left in the middle of the night and got there in the morning, so eventually I came to the conclusion that it left at 3am. So I went back to the guesthouse, and even confirmed with a kid working there, and settled in for a 3am departure, set my alarm for 1:30 (there really didn't seem to be a reason to 'check-in' too early) and mentally prepared myself for a restless night..

I was reading a John Grisham book on a lounge chair at 9:15 when the owner of the guesthouse comes running up to me a little frantic, telling me I am going to miss the boat. It was in fact scheduled to leave at 9:00pm, and though we could see it was still at the dock from our vantage point, it was to be leaving at any moment! So I drop the book, grab my backpack, hoped I had everything (no electricity, so no lights) and I run down the hill towards the town. My bag is heavy, so it turns into more of a determined walk, but thankfully the owner comes after me on a moped; I jump on the back, and we speed down all the way down the jetty to the ferry.

The boat doesn't actually end up leaving until around 10 o'clock, and I'm not sure I learned anything from the experience. Usually six hours is enough to make it fairly obvious which time is in question, but not always.. The night on the boat wasn't even too bad. Being the only mzungu made me lots of friends. I did get into a delicate conversation about the book I was reading, Infidel (the coast and the islands in particular are very Muslim), someone even gave me a wicker-type mat and I was able to stretch out on the deck, and I slept most of the way. Ended up in Stonetown 9 hours (and only 50km) later, not too much the worse for wear, though I'm thinking of taking a faster boat back to the mainland..