Zanzibar

This past weekend we went to Zanzibar – a perfect end to four weeks of intensive Swahili classes! The first day we had a guided tour of the town. Stone Town is very different from Dar. The streets are really narrow and don’t seem to follow any sort of pattern whatsoever. I have a terrible sense of direction but usually get pretty good at getting around once I’ve had a chance to wander around an area for a while, but even after three days I would not have been able to get from our hotel to the waterfront on my own without getting lost.

The second day we went to a spice farm, which was really cool. Seeing how some of my favorite spices, like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, pepper, etc. grow and what they look like as plants was fun. One of the books I was reading this summer, “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan, talks about how so many people in the US can’t recognize fresh vegetables because they’re so used to processed foods. There have always been gardens and real foods in my family so I’m fairly familiar with what vegetables look like, but it wasn’t until on Zanzibar that I even realized how ignorant I am of spices. So I’m very glad to have seen them now! It was also fun to be able to buy some spices from the farm. They were slightly more expensive than in the spice market in Stone Town, but the fact that I have actually been to the place they’re produced far outweighs the slight difference in price. I’m excited to try them out at home! After the spice farm we went to Jozani forest and saw Red Colobus Monkeys. They were very used to people so we could get within a few feet of them. They’re beautiful, and very different from the vervets on campus.

The third day, we went snorkeling. It was fantastic! I was a bit nervous at first, since I’m somewhat afraid of living things in the water and the whole purpose of snorkeling is to look at living things. After the first few minutes of twitching at the sight of a fish and envisioning sharks sneaking up on me I ended up loving it though. I wish I knew more about corals and the fish that live in them. I could recognize clown fish, and a few others that I’ve seen in aquariums or movies before but have no idea what they’re called. We were out there for about two hours, but I could have stayed for several more. Simply floating and looking down at things was fascinating, and it was lots of fun to swim with the flippers. A few times I tried to join a group of fish, and while some of them seemed a bit freaked out at a giant creature following them, others mostly ignored me and I could swim along with them for a bit. Snorkeling was a wonderful conclusion to a highly enjoyable weekend.