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Gombe Stream National Park is where Jane Goodall's chimp research happened and is still happening. But it wasn't just the chimps that made it amazing.
Gombe is a tiny park squeezed into the shore of Lake Tanganyika. It's topography is more related to it's location between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria where Tanzania, the DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda all converge, than the rest of Tanzania. It is basically a thin strip of mountains covered by temperate rainforest and the lake. It is beautiful. It is also very remote, about three days tortouous travel from Dar es Salaam (if you are not flying) and then a few hours in a boat from Kigoma (I was in Kigoma checking up on a VGIF site anyway). Since it is low season for tourists (rainy season), I had the place to myself. And I mean I was literally the only mzungu there.
The park only has the capacity to sleep about 25 visitors, but there wasn't another guest in sight. There were plenty of staff, researchers etc, but I was the only tourist. I had a private park for myself. I tracked chimps with only the researchers (and they really didn't seem to be doing too much research, more like sitting around and telling jokes) and had the good fortune to see a lot chimpanzees.
The pictures aren't the best (flash was not allow). But the best time was when I put the camera away anyway. I am trying to take more videos (if not upload them due to African bandwidths).
Here is a video clip of a baby chimp playing in a tree above me:
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The Art of Eating a Mango
Maybe I just haven't eaten enough mangoes in my life (I blame my mother), or maybe Tanzania just produces really good mangoes, but I have gained a lot of appreciation for this inimitable fruit. Considering the pretty much tropical locale, fruit really isn't that prevalent. Other than the mango, there is: papaya, bananas, pineapple passion fruit and maybe some hard local pears, oranges or 
apples, but that is it, and many places you'd be hard pressed to find any fruit at all. The one real exception to this dearth of fruit has been the mango, and alas it seems that their season is about over..
apples, but that is it, and many places you'd be hard pressed to find any fruit at all. The one real exception to this dearth of fruit has been the mango, and alas it seems that their season is about over..One of the reasons I have consumed so many mangoes is because there is no real juice culture here. In Ethiopia juice was very common (and thus cheap and good) so I didn't eat as much fruit. Here, juice is expensive ($2-3) and rarely sold fresh outside of tourist places, but the mangoes are (or were) available and exceptional.
There are two basic kinds of mango: the small green one's that are eaten unripe with salt and chili, and the big one's that get a little reddish when ripe (the regular ones you find at home). I like the regular ones. I like them a little bit under ripe like I like most fruit, for the firmnes
s and tiny bit of tartness (I know many people consider this sacrilegious). The big ones look a little more intimidating than their small green counterpart, but they are really a good sized snack. The pit accounts for much of the size, which is the reason eating them is an art rather than a science.
s and tiny bit of tartness (I know many people consider this sacrilegious). The big ones look a little more intimidating than their small green counterpart, but they are really a good sized snack. The pit accounts for much of the size, which is the reason eating them is an art rather than a science.There are many ways to eat a mango. The assymetrical ness is really what necessitates the creativity. One cannot (especially with the local, non-gmo big pitted variety) cut it half then in quarters or any other fraction very easily, you have to improvise. Some people peal the skin off methodically and to make sure they get all the fruit. This isn't always a good technique when you are sitting on the beach or in your hotel room due to the juiciness factor.
As any little boy can tell you, it is fun to cut things with a sharp knife and mangoes are no exception (and having been carrying my knife around for 5 months, it's nice to actually use it). The way it is served in restaurants here, the bigger (more fruit) half is cut off and then it is cut for easy eating with a fork or spoon. When I am eating my mangoes I like to slice into it and carve out sections. It is difficult to assess when you'll hit pit, so one must be ever vigilant and slice accordingly. No two mangoes are ever the same (like snowflakes) so every time you first pierce the peel you are engaging in a unique piece of performance art.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Malawi: Wins and Losses
The recent Malawi excursion is microcosmic of my whole trip; highs and lows, peaks and valleys, strikes and gutters. And generally more good than bad, but the bad stuff is more interesting to write about.
It started out inauspiciously (or auspiciously, I'm not really sure which), the border crossing was a breeze, but there was no bus waiting for me on the other side as promised (I really knew better). But I quickly rallied, miraculously there was a taxi one person short of capacity, and I hopped in at was in a major town 3 dollars and 45 minutes later. My luck ran a little short after that, the next 200k took about 6 hours on a slow local bus ending up in a crappy town where I was hungry and tired and choose to spend the night in a crappy guest house next to a loud bar. After that it picked up a little, I ran into this Dutch couple that I had run into 4 other separate times in Tanzania, and we went to this awesome spot on Lake Malawi, Nkhata Bay. I got a great deal on the nicest room of the trip so far (stone bathtub, quilt my mom would love, overlooking the lake, etc). I always looked down upon Midwesterners who talk about "beaches" on the Great Lakes, but maybe I should reconsider (though I doubt Lake Michigan has much in common with Lake Malawi other than semantically..) Anyway, I stayed on the lake for a few days, and then headed back north towards a VGIF site I needed to visit in Chitipa. On the way I stopped at this awesome place up on the plateau (Malawi really has incredible topography with amazing green mountains meeting the lake), I stayed there for 2 nights, and it was great..
After my extended Northern Malawi tour I headed back towards the Tanzanian border to get some work done. Chitipa is actually very close to Tanzania, but it is 100k from a paved road, and since it's rainy season, there is no regular public transport there. However I was told it was easy to get a ride in the back of a truck. So I walk from the Karonga bus station out to the dirt road leading west, and sure enough a truck rolls up after 15minutes or so. I was expecting to ride in the back (I should mention I had to hitch a ride in the back of a pick-up to get down from the Mushroom Farm to the main road that morning to get a bus), but this truck was full of cargo, the driver and his two buddies offered four of us (and a baby) to squeeze into the space behind the seats in the cab. This actually seemed preferable to bouncing around in the back, so I climbed in.
It was very cramped, since there are three guys sitting in the two actual seats, the four of us in the one and a half foot wide space behind them couldn't extend our legs. But the people were all very friendly, and I probably had the best spot (in the middle). It looked like it was going to rain, so it was nice to be inside, and the music the driver was playing was actually pretty good. With my spirits high I even took a video on my camera (which I'll post at a later date if possible).
About an hour into our journey (I was told it would take about 3 hours to reach Chitipa) it started to rain. It didn't even rain that hard or for that long, but it turned the top layer of the road into mud. This mud was very different than the New England mud season mud I am familiar with. The red African dirt (much like I imagine the mud in the American South from my extensive viewing of My Cousin Vinny to be like) turned into slippery slop that was even hard to walk on. The reason I know what it is like to walk on is because as soon as our truck hit an incline, it would lose momentum and its tires would just spin in the mud.
There were stickers on the windshield that said "Off Road" and "4x4", these were obviously blatant lies. This truck was no match for the slick road surface on any sort of incline, and while we didn't get stuck on downhills, they felt like we were surfing on mud with a 3ton surfboard. And this was a hilly road. We got to one hilly section and even with the help of the resident kids' hoes (our shovels were worthless) we couldn't get the truck moving. After about 45minutes when I was mentally preparing myself to sleep cramped in the cab, our guardian angel came in the form of a Caterpillar earth-mover type machine. The driver towed the truck to the top of that hill without too much difficulty, and we started off. We were stuck again within 5 minutes. Luckily the Caterpillar doesn't move that fast, and he was still within honking distance to tow us again. He ended up towing us for the better part of 3 miles, to the end of the uphill section. It really didn't even rain that much, and it seemed like the road was drying out a little bit, and we headed down the road. We crossed a river, and stopped to clean the mud off of us a little bit, and I was told we were more than half-way there, we had been traveling for about 5 hours at this point and it was starting to get dark.
Needless to say we got stuck numerous times in the second half of the journey as well. Luckily when we would get stuck we would spin out blocking the whole road, so other travellers were forced to help us so they could get by. A couple muddy spin-outs later in the pitch dark on a particularly long, slippery hill, a passing mini-bus full of passengers helped pull us out. I thought there was no way this truck was making it to Chitipa tonight, so I bailed out, paid my share and jumped in the mini-bus. The mini-bus passed the truck and I thought I was home free. Unfortunately at the next town the mini-bus money-collector guy got in a fight with some kid who was trying to steal our tail-lights.. This caused enough of a delay to allow the truck to pass us, and low and behold we were behind it again on the next hill when it got stuck. We got out to help, but it looked like the truck was going nowhere, we managed to get the mini-bus past the truck by pulling it through the mud on the side of the road. Running off into the night covered in mud in front of the mini-bus I felt a little guilty about leaving the truck behind, but at this point I just wanted to get to Chitipa.
The rest of the ride passed without incident. We made it to Chitipa 9 hours after I left, but I was just happy to get there at all. After dropping off a few people, we stopped to pick up some more, and low and behold it was my former fellow passengers from the truck, miraculously they made it to Chitipa just behind us, and they didn't even hold a grudge for me abandoning them by the side of the road.
It started out inauspiciously (or auspiciously, I'm not really sure which), the border crossing was a breeze, but there was no bus waiting for me on the other side as promised (I really knew better). But I quickly rallied, miraculously there was a taxi one person short of capacity, and I hopped in at was in a major town 3 dollars and 45 minutes later. My luck ran a little short after that, the next 200k took about 6 hours on a slow local bus ending up in a crappy town where I was hungry and tired and choose to spend the night in a crappy guest house next to a loud bar. After that it picked up a little, I ran into this Dutch couple that I had run into 4 other separate times in Tanzania, and we went to this awesome spot on Lake Malawi, Nkhata Bay. I got a great deal on the nicest room of the trip so far (stone bathtub, quilt my mom would love, overlooking the lake, etc). I always looked down upon Midwesterners who talk about "beaches" on the Great Lakes, but maybe I should reconsider (though I doubt Lake Michigan has much in common with Lake Malawi other than semantically..) Anyway, I stayed on the lake for a few days, and then headed back north towards a VGIF site I needed to visit in Chitipa. On the way I stopped at this awesome place up on the plateau (Malawi really has incredible topography with amazing green mountains meeting the lake), I stayed there for 2 nights, and it was great..
After my extended Northern Malawi tour I headed back towards the Tanzanian border to get some work done. Chitipa is actually very close to Tanzania, but it is 100k from a paved road, and since it's rainy season, there is no regular public transport there. However I was told it was easy to get a ride in the back of a truck. So I walk from the Karonga bus station out to the dirt road leading west, and sure enough a truck rolls up after 15minutes or so. I was expecting to ride in the back (I should mention I had to hitch a ride in the back of a pick-up to get down from the Mushroom Farm to the main road that morning to get a bus), but this truck was full of cargo, the driver and his two buddies offered four of us (and a baby) to squeeze into the space behind the seats in the cab. This actually seemed preferable to bouncing around in the back, so I climbed in.
It was very cramped, since there are three guys sitting in the two actual seats, the four of us in the one and a half foot wide space behind them couldn't extend our legs. But the people were all very friendly, and I probably had the best spot (in the middle). It looked like it was going to rain, so it was nice to be inside, and the music the driver was playing was actually pretty good. With my spirits high I even took a video on my camera (which I'll post at a later date if possible).
About an hour into our journey (I was told it would take about 3 hours to reach Chitipa) it started to rain. It didn't even rain that hard or for that long, but it turned the top layer of the road into mud. This mud was very different than the New England mud season mud I am familiar with. The red African dirt (much like I imagine the mud in the American South from my extensive viewing of My Cousin Vinny to be like) turned into slippery slop that was even hard to walk on. The reason I know what it is like to walk on is because as soon as our truck hit an incline, it would lose momentum and its tires would just spin in the mud.
There were stickers on the windshield that said "Off Road" and "4x4", these were obviously blatant lies. This truck was no match for the slick road surface on any sort of incline, and while we didn't get stuck on downhills, they felt like we were surfing on mud with a 3ton surfboard. And this was a hilly road. We got to one hilly section and even with the help of the resident kids' hoes (our shovels were worthless) we couldn't get the truck moving. After about 45minutes when I was mentally preparing myself to sleep cramped in the cab, our guardian angel came in the form of a Caterpillar earth-mover type machine. The driver towed the truck to the top of that hill without too much difficulty, and we started off. We were stuck again within 5 minutes. Luckily the Caterpillar doesn't move that fast, and he was still within honking distance to tow us again. He ended up towing us for the better part of 3 miles, to the end of the uphill section. It really didn't even rain that much, and it seemed like the road was drying out a little bit, and we headed down the road. We crossed a river, and stopped to clean the mud off of us a little bit, and I was told we were more than half-way there, we had been traveling for about 5 hours at this point and it was starting to get dark.
Needless to say we got stuck numerous times in the second half of the journey as well. Luckily when we would get stuck we would spin out blocking the whole road, so other travellers were forced to help us so they could get by. A couple muddy spin-outs later in the pitch dark on a particularly long, slippery hill, a passing mini-bus full of passengers helped pull us out. I thought there was no way this truck was making it to Chitipa tonight, so I bailed out, paid my share and jumped in the mini-bus. The mini-bus passed the truck and I thought I was home free. Unfortunately at the next town the mini-bus money-collector guy got in a fight with some kid who was trying to steal our tail-lights.. This caused enough of a delay to allow the truck to pass us, and low and behold we were behind it again on the next hill when it got stuck. We got out to help, but it looked like the truck was going nowhere, we managed to get the mini-bus past the truck by pulling it through the mud on the side of the road. Running off into the night covered in mud in front of the mini-bus I felt a little guilty about leaving the truck behind, but at this point I just wanted to get to Chitipa.
The rest of the ride passed without incident. We made it to Chitipa 9 hours after I left, but I was just happy to get there at all. After dropping off a few people, we stopped to pick up some more, and low and behold it was my former fellow passengers from the truck, miraculously they made it to Chitipa just behind us, and they didn't even hold a grudge for me abandoning them by the side of the road.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sightings from the Road
I'm on the road again. Selous was mildly disappointing (expectations were probably too high) , got back to Dar and am getting to work. I am three days into a whirlwind tour of Tanzania, I need to visit VGIF sites (give them money: www.thegildersleeve.org/) all over the country as well as a few in Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda. I've already visited one (almost two) and it included a couple dozen women dancing and singing upon my arrival..
I am not a big fan of the actual travelling (sitting on buses, etc), but in the three days it's taken me to get from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya (South, near the Malawi border) there have been some high points. The biggest highway (if you can call it that) runs from Dar all the way to Zambia, and it has been a good re-introduction to actual travelling ( not travelling = sitting on the beach for a week before moving on to the next beach). And despite it being well paved it actually bisects Mikumi national park just 5 hours out of the capital.
I knew that the road went right through and was considering doing a little safari there later, but didn't realize the animals would come to me. While hurtling down the road in a full sized bus averaging a respectable 40 miles per hour, I saw (I eventually started keeping track):
a huge warthog
about 30 giraffes
probably 200 Impala
8 Elands
a couple troops of baboons
10ish Elephants
7 buffaloes
15 or so Zebras
a bunch of birds
I'm sure I missed at least as many animals on the other side of the bus, and who knows how much I missed simply because we were going too fast.. It was impressive. I probably saw as much as I did driving around for a whole day in Selous.
While I haven't seen much wildlife apart from the aforementioned 45minutes, the bus travel has not been as bad as dreaded, I've met some nice people, and have gotten far away from the tourist traps. While not spotting animals I have continued my quest to find the most awesome vintage t-shirt of the trip (are t-shirts more or less ironic if the person wearing it can't read what it says?). As you may be aware, much of the clothing that people don't want, ends up in Africa. But with today's crazy fashion trends, the shirts that people donated 10 years ago would actually be cool today, maybe Africa should start re-selling them back.. anyway I have seen a parade of obscure shirts that the hipsters of Oakland would die for, not to mention various Red Sox shirts that I considered making an offer for (an 1986 AL Champs shirt!!). However my favorite t-shirt, I spotted just the other day on a kid trying to sell stuff to our bus near Iringa:
Arlington Boys and Girls Club
Patriot Day Fun Run
sponsored by: Cambridge Savings Bank
as a CSB customer I felt proud. I tried to take a picture, but alas, somethings in life you can't capture in a picture anyway. And the regular occurrence of awesome t-shirts always brightens my day.
Malawi tomorrow.
(PS. I got a cell phone: +255 788 510 954)
I am not a big fan of the actual travelling (sitting on buses, etc), but in the three days it's taken me to get from Dar es Salaam to Mbeya (South, near the Malawi border) there have been some high points. The biggest highway (if you can call it that) runs from Dar all the way to Zambia, and it has been a good re-introduction to actual travelling ( not travelling = sitting on the beach for a week before moving on to the next beach). And despite it being well paved it actually bisects Mikumi national park just 5 hours out of the capital.
I knew that the road went right through and was considering doing a little safari there later, but didn't realize the animals would come to me. While hurtling down the road in a full sized bus averaging a respectable 40 miles per hour, I saw (I eventually started keeping track):
a huge warthog
about 30 giraffes
probably 200 Impala
8 Elands
a couple troops of baboons
10ish Elephants
7 buffaloes
15 or so Zebras
a bunch of birds
I'm sure I missed at least as many animals on the other side of the bus, and who knows how much I missed simply because we were going too fast.. It was impressive. I probably saw as much as I did driving around for a whole day in Selous.
While I haven't seen much wildlife apart from the aforementioned 45minutes, the bus travel has not been as bad as dreaded, I've met some nice people, and have gotten far away from the tourist traps. While not spotting animals I have continued my quest to find the most awesome vintage t-shirt of the trip (are t-shirts more or less ironic if the person wearing it can't read what it says?). As you may be aware, much of the clothing that people don't want, ends up in Africa. But with today's crazy fashion trends, the shirts that people donated 10 years ago would actually be cool today, maybe Africa should start re-selling them back.. anyway I have seen a parade of obscure shirts that the hipsters of Oakland would die for, not to mention various Red Sox shirts that I considered making an offer for (an 1986 AL Champs shirt!!). However my favorite t-shirt, I spotted just the other day on a kid trying to sell stuff to our bus near Iringa:
Arlington Boys and Girls Club
Patriot Day Fun Run
sponsored by: Cambridge Savings Bank
as a CSB customer I felt proud. I tried to take a picture, but alas, somethings in life you can't capture in a picture anyway. And the regular occurrence of awesome t-shirts always brightens my day.
Malawi tomorrow.
(PS. I got a cell phone: +255 788 510 954)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Ice Cream and Camouflage
I am in the big city with all the accompanying hustle and bustle intensified by the hot equatorial sun, but I have to admit I am enjoying it. As much as I love going to wilderness (and I am going to the storied Selous tomorrow!!), I am a city-boy at heart.
One of the joys of city life here in Tanzania is ice cream. I don't think I have appreciated ice-cream this much in a long time. It has been a wh
ile since I have been some place this hot without much air-conditioning, but with a consistent enough electricity supply to support freezer technology. It is not Toscanini's quality by any means, but there is something very satisfying about the cold, creamy, sweet indulgence when you are still sweating after the sun goes down (and generally the ice-chip content is very low). All the fancy ice cream in the world is great, but it is a very different experience. I don't eat much real food during the day when it is this hot, but I am more than making up for any caloric deficiencies with ice-cream bars and shakes.
ile since I have been some place this hot without much air-conditioning, but with a consistent enough electricity supply to support freezer technology. It is not Toscanini's quality by any means, but there is something very satisfying about the cold, creamy, sweet indulgence when you are still sweating after the sun goes down (and generally the ice-chip content is very low). All the fancy ice cream in the world is great, but it is a very different experience. I don't eat much real food during the day when it is this hot, but I am more than making up for any caloric deficiencies with ice-cream bars and shakes.My second anecdote is not related to dessert at all. But is connected to Dar's quaintness despite it being a humongous city. This post was just going to be about ice-cream, but as this happened while I was walking in the street just 10minutes ago, I felt I had to share. I was walking along minding my own business when two police officers (or they could have been soldiers, it's a little hard to tell the difference, they all have big guns) stop me and ask me how I'm doing. I say fine and start to keep walking, and they tell me to stop and I am told that it is against the law in this country to wear the camouflage shorts that I am wearing..
Now I've actually been told this before by people that I've met, but since I only have two pairs of shorts, it's not really feasible for me to stop wearing one of them, and I am mzungu after all..
So I tell the cop I won't wear them anymore, but he says I need to pay a 20,000 shilling fine (about $16) or go to jail for a year. His partner doesn't seem as into this and asks me where I am going, and seems legitimately interested in helping to orient me (though I'm not lost). So I call his bluff, and say, "let's go to the police station so I can pay my fine". So we start walking around the corner, and of course the first one asks me for the money now, and I tell him I'll pay at the station. His partner meanwhile is pointing out the street that goes toward my hotel, so I ignore the guy trying to shake me down, thank the one giving me unnecessary directions and walk away.
It was almost cute how unpersistent this representative of Dar es Salaam's finest was. This really is a big frantic city (as evidenced by the 6 dalla-dalla rides I took yesterday with a person from a local NGO), but I could definitely imagine getting to like it.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
My Father's Photos
Here are some pictures from my dad's camera from when my parents visited me..
p.s. I just got to Dar Es Salaam.. big city living; real internet, phones, cheap Indian food, etc. Starting VGIF work tomorrow!
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| JakeAfrica |
p.s. I just got to Dar Es Salaam.. big city living; real internet, phones, cheap Indian food, etc. Starting VGIF work tomorrow!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Kilimanjaro Photos
Kilimanjaro definitely exceeded all expectations, It was beautiful, but I guess I didn't really know what to expect before I got there. I thought there wouldn't be much snow, but the glaciers were pretty legitimate, no California 'glaciers' here, but I also thought crampons etc would be necessary, not so much. It was really just a big hike, but pretty different than your average backpacking trip..
So things I noticed:
Luxury:
I am not used to having my bag carried for me and all my meals cooked and brought to me in my tent while I rested.. and I went with a 'budget' operator. Felt a little awkward watching my backpack go up the trail with my stuff in it, but saving 2% of the total cost so I could carry it didn't really seem worth it. (Does every porter in the world smoke cigarettes?) There were about 3-4 people supporting each client on the mountain (guides, porters, etc).
It wasn't really that tough of a hike:
I think the altitude gets a lot of people, but since I was in Ethiopia at 9,000ft for the previous three months it wasn't much of a problem for me. I was at camp most days before 2pm and I think I gained weight with all the good food I was eating. The summit day was tough, but overall it was very enjoyable.
Obama:
My first night on the mountain happened to coincide with the Obama inauguration. I thought I was going to miss the speech, but my cook had a portable radio with him, and I listened to the historic speech huddled in the cold at 7000ft listening to el presidente with some locals 6000 miles from Washington DC who were as rapt as I was.. pretty memorable.
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| Kilimanjaro |
So things I noticed:
Luxury:
I am not used to having my bag carried for me and all my meals cooked and brought to me in my tent while I rested.. and I went with a 'budget' operator. Felt a little awkward watching my backpack go up the trail with my stuff in it, but saving 2% of the total cost so I could carry it didn't really seem worth it. (Does every porter in the world smoke cigarettes?) There were about 3-4 people supporting each client on the mountain (guides, porters, etc).
It wasn't really that tough of a hike:
I think the altitude gets a lot of people, but since I was in Ethiopia at 9,000ft for the previous three months it wasn't much of a problem for me. I was at camp most days before 2pm and I think I gained weight with all the good food I was eating. The summit day was tough, but overall it was very enjoyable.
Obama:
My first night on the mountain happened to coincide with the Obama inauguration. I thought I was going to miss the speech, but my cook had a portable radio with him, and I listened to the historic speech huddled in the cold at 7000ft listening to el presidente with some locals 6000 miles from Washington DC who were as rapt as I was.. pretty memorable.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Zanzibar
I'm on Zanzibar!
I don't think I knew Zanzibar was a real place. I thought it was one of those made up places whose name is meant to evoke the ends of the earth, like Timbuktu or something.. even being here it doesn't seem quite real; turquoise water (SCUBA not surfing), powdery white sand, dhows, spice plantations, etc.
A nice place to visit. I was able to have my visit coincide with the Sauti Za
Busara (words of wisdom) Music Festival as well [www.busaramusic.org/]; East African music festival, big party in an old fort with really great music, good times.. Stonetown itself is really cool as well, a historic city (carved doors, sultans, tiny twisting alleys that sooner or later end up on the beach..
Zanzibar
I don't think I knew Zanzibar was a real place. I thought it was one of those made up places whose name is meant to evoke the ends of the earth, like Timbuktu or something.. even being here it doesn't seem quite real; turquoise water (SCUBA not surfing), powdery white sand, dhows, spice plantations, etc.
A nice place to visit. I was able to have my visit coincide with the Sauti Za
Busara (words of wisdom) Music Festival as well [www.busaramusic.org/]; East African music festival, big party in an old fort with really great music, good times.. Stonetown itself is really cool as well, a historic city (carved doors, sultans, tiny twisting alleys that sooner or later end up on the beach..
Zanzibar
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
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..
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
TIA
This Is Africa:
So I am eating breakfast Monday morning (the morning after the SuperBowl) watching the news on television. It is tuned to a local channel (TBC, Tanzanias Broadcast Corporation??) but it's an English language broadcast picked up from a Russian station. The news seems pretty normal, at little Soviet centered (they were advertising an special on South Ossetia) but it’s enough to keep me occupied while I am eating my eggs. Then the sports news comes on (or "Sport" as the rest of the world seems to call it), so I expect to at least get a score from the game. The coverage was pretty indepth; it covered most of Europe's major soccer leagues, even got into track and field a little bit, but there wasn't even a mention of the Superbowl.. silly American.
The next day (I really don't like the Steeler's) I am taking a quick 5 hour ferry over to the island of Pemba in the Zanzibar Archipelago. The boat ride is pretty uneventful (there was a loud noise and a little smoke at one point, but evidently it was inconsequential) and as we are getting to our destination a man comes up to the deck I’m on, selling soap. Now this in itself is not unusual, one is never lacking opportunities to buy food, toothpaste, bed sheets, or anything else whether you are sitting on a bus or in a café. However what made this particular moment in capitalism auspicious was how many customers the guys had. In the 15 minutes he was selling his soap he probably had 20 customers, buying an average of 5 bars. I guess I’ll never know if it was great soap or a fantastic bargain because I didn’t buy any, but I can’t imagine the set of circumstances that caused so many people to purchase soap on the Pemba ferry…
So I am eating breakfast Monday morning (the morning after the SuperBowl) watching the news on television. It is tuned to a local channel (TBC, Tanzanias Broadcast Corporation??) but it's an English language broadcast picked up from a Russian station. The news seems pretty normal, at little Soviet centered (they were advertising an special on South Ossetia) but it’s enough to keep me occupied while I am eating my eggs. Then the sports news comes on (or "Sport" as the rest of the world seems to call it), so I expect to at least get a score from the game. The coverage was pretty indepth; it covered most of Europe's major soccer leagues, even got into track and field a little bit, but there wasn't even a mention of the Superbowl.. silly American.
The next day (I really don't like the Steeler's) I am taking a quick 5 hour ferry over to the island of Pemba in the Zanzibar Archipelago. The boat ride is pretty uneventful (there was a loud noise and a little smoke at one point, but evidently it was inconsequential) and as we are getting to our destination a man comes up to the deck I’m on, selling soap. Now this in itself is not unusual, one is never lacking opportunities to buy food, toothpaste, bed sheets, or anything else whether you are sitting on a bus or in a café. However what made this particular moment in capitalism auspicious was how many customers the guys had. In the 15 minutes he was selling his soap he probably had 20 customers, buying an average of 5 bars. I guess I’ll never know if it was great soap or a fantastic bargain because I didn’t buy any, but I can’t imagine the set of circumstances that caused so many people to purchase soap on the Pemba ferry…
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Superbowl Sunday Update
Trying to upload my Tanzania pictures, but not having much luck. I can't complain, the internet here is way better than it was in Ethiopia. I have been at the beach north of Pangani, and
am now heading towards the islands (Zanzibar and Pemba).. if god wills the boat to arrive. I actually really like the town I am in (Tanga [pictured]) it is a pretty big city (for Tanzania) but it is really laid back, maybe because it is so hot, maybe it's because there aren't too many wazungu around.
I have been reading in the shade with the nice ocean breeze, etc.. I still have plenty of good books from my parents resupply that I don't have to worry about using up my good ones (that is a real thought I have sometimes, the bookexchanges are slimpickings around here) and I am building up my good karma by leaving good books for other people, so it should all work out.
Visited some caves today that are supposedly the biggest limestone cave network anywhere in the world, they were pretty impressive (see picture). I wasn't even planning on stopping he
re, I have been doing the major tourist highlights (Serengeti, Kilimanjaro), after Zanzibar it will definitely be more off the beaten track, and I am looking forward to that. Hopefully Indian food will remain prevalent..
am now heading towards the islands (Zanzibar and Pemba).. if god wills the boat to arrive. I actually really like the town I am in (Tanga [pictured]) it is a pretty big city (for Tanzania) but it is really laid back, maybe because it is so hot, maybe it's because there aren't too many wazungu around.I have been reading in the shade with the nice ocean breeze, etc.. I still have plenty of good books from my parents resupply that I don't have to worry about using up my good ones (that is a real thought I have sometimes, the bookexchanges are slimpickings around here) and I am building up my good karma by leaving good books for other people, so it should all work out.
Visited some caves today that are supposedly the biggest limestone cave network anywhere in the world, they were pretty impressive (see picture). I wasn't even planning on stopping he
re, I have been doing the major tourist highlights (Serengeti, Kilimanjaro), after Zanzibar it will definitely be more off the beaten track, and I am looking forward to that. Hopefully Indian food will remain prevalent..
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