Sunday Fun-day.

Of course the electricity didn’t cut out Saturday night, but it cuts out for 3.5 hours Sunday morning. Electricity outages, just part of the island way of life.

Sunday we got up around noon after Preston called us, the plan was to go to Zanzibar Park (zoo). We went to lunch at Lukmaan, where we went with Adam the first day we had lunch here. The restaurant was really packed with both locals and tourists. They serve the typical types of food found here: curries, biriyani, pilau, etc. Chels and I have been on a vegetable binge and try to get vegetable dishes wherever we go, so we both got a plate of biriyani and a side of vegetable coconut curry. When our plates came, the dish was enormous, it was like a 10 inch plate completely filled with rice. Apparently there are small and large portions, which we weren’t told by the waiter and we were just given the large portion. The two of us could have shared a plate for sure since both of us ate only half of it. The coconut curry was really good, not too strong with a small hint of coconut and lots of carrots and peas.

After lunch, we picked up Mary and her boyfriend and we drove to the zoo, which was only about 10 minutes away.  The local price was 3000TSH (~2USD), but tourist price was 7USD, that’s more than triple! We asked at work today whether we could get a resident card since we’re here for two months but were told that the chances would be slim…guess we’ll be paying more tourist prices. I didn’t really know what to expect at this zoo, I thought it would be fairly small with just a few animals. As we went inside, I was surprised that a guide was with us the entire time explaining all the animals in each cage; Mary said that’s never happened before and it was probably because it wasn’t busy at all. The first exhibit was the giant tortoises that are well known to Zanzibar. I was a little startled when they told us we could walk into the exhibit and touch the turtles…then we were allowed to sit on them!

Who needs cars when you have an over 100 year old tortoise.

The zoo here is definitely different from those at home. The next exhibit was an anaconda, and of course they took the snake out of its cage. And because that’s not enough, we also got to hold it! We were allowed to also go into the gazelle, camel and zebra exhibits. The camels and zebras were a meter away from us, it was pretty cool! I wanted to touch the baby zebra, but it ran away and I was scared the mom would come after me and then that would be the end of my trip haha. We also saw baboons, porcupines, hyenas, and some other birds and cat species. And we finally got to try Fanta Passion! I’ve been wanting to try it since we got here, but we couldn’t find it anywhere. It was really good, my favourite Fanta flavour so far.

Way heavier, but softer than I thought it would be!

 Nice bum, where ya from? (It's a baboon)

 Black and white colobus monkey, only found in Zanzibar. It looks eerily similar to a human.

Even they can't take the heat here.

Porcupine eating a mango.

How you doin?

Wouldn't want to be anywhere near this hyena without a cage between us.

It's so close, and they're gorgeous!

Then we went to a the Zanzibar Beach Hotel to just hang out and have a drink. The hotel was really nice, there was a Man U vs Liverpool game on so a lot of people were watching the game at the bar; soccer is huge here. After that we went to a hotel called Mbweni Ruins Hotel, rightly named because it used to be ruins. The hotel had a lot of different types of trees growing and the beach was pretty nice. The coolest part was that there were mangrove trees growing in the water! We took some pictures and hung out for a bit, but the mosquitoes started getting really bad when it got dark out. There were swarms and swarms of them around us and they were actually diving straight at our faces, we could feel them hit our face. It was disgusting; I got 8 bites from last night. Can’t seem to get rid of them no matter where I am.

 Mangroves

Walking Trees

For dinner, Mary suggested an Ethiopian restaurant in town. I always wanted to try Ethiopian food when we were in Montreal but never got the chance and this seemed more authentic since we’re in Africa! Chels doesn’t like eating with her hands, she thinks its gross, but she was down to give it a try. Chels ordered a chickpea dumping in a spicy sauce (she’s basically gone vegetarian here cause she’s really picky with her meat) and I ordered a Sunday special of lamb. We also got to try the homemade Ethiopian wine, which is made with honey so it’s a lot sweeter than normal white wine.; it was so good! They explained to us that the “bread” that comes with the meal is made out of rice and you rip of pieces of the bread and grab a bit of whatever dish you order with your hands and eat it. I didn’t have any issues getting my hands dirty since they can easily be washed afterwards. Chels’ dish was a bit messier because it was very saucy… I don’t think she took a liking to eating with her hands; the sauce was good but too spicy for me so I couldn’t eat much of it and the dumplings I found too dry inside. I liked my dish, it was very flavourful and I don’t get to eat lamb much at home (it was also very cheap, only 8000TSH = $5.33 USD). When you finish your meal the waiter comes around with hand soap and a vase of water for you to clean your hands with, what impeccable service!

Lizard in an umbrella as a lampshade at the restaurant.

All 5 of our meals! The white stuff under the dishes and rolled up on the side is the rice bread.

It was a random, but fun day for sure. We got back around 10pm and I was able to call home, which was nice. I only call about once a week because it’s hard to find a time when everyone is home. I didn’t think it would hit be so early on in the trip, but I’m definitely starting to get a bit homesick. I guess the first week here was more like vacation and everything was about having fun, but now that we have a work routine it’s really starting to feel like we’re here for two months for placement. And the fact that our kitchen recently got invaded with ants didn’t help, it was way worse than when I mentioned it in my last post. But this morning we took action and sprayed the kitchen with special bug spray before we left for work. It was pretty much instant death for the ants, but we know this is only temporary and eventually they will be back. Definitely not used to the heat still, and I don’t think I will in the two months that we’re here; I do think I’ve complained a lot less about it though (Aman, Victor, Jo: yes I realize that this is a very PLA moment). We’re also still adjusting to the food and the inaccessibility to cook and eat vegetables, but today we went to the market and bought lots of veggies and fruits and we’re gonna make more of an effort to eat healthier. One step at a time. Today, Preston showed us a place really close to our apartment where we can get water for a good price, which is amazing because the other place we were going to before was a 10 minute walk and when you’re carry six 1 litre bottles of water…it kind of sucks. So right now, he’s kind of our hero.

Sweeping away the dead ants; this was only a small chunk of them.

 Happybirthday Aman, wish I could have been there!

I’ve been here for two weeks now and there’s seven more to go. Although I do like it here and I get to do and experience a lot of things I would never get a chance to do at home, I am looking forward to going home. But I decided to come here and in the end it will be a memorable experience and something I would ever get to do otherwise so I’m trying to look at everything with optimism and an open mind. There’s a lesson to be learned in everything and “every situation has the potential to make an amazing story” (said to me by the loveliest Laura Klaponski, miss you and hope you’re reading this!), so I’m going to try my best to embrace everything! Hakuna Matata (it’s awesome to actually be able to say this with purpose in real life situations, we use it all the time).