Weekend mishaps.

Another week come and gone, we're now onto our 5th week in Zanzibar.

SATURDAY

We left the house around 9:15am today to go to the market to catch a dala dala to Matemwe. We couldn’t find any with the sign to there in the central area where the dala dalas come through so we had to ask a man, who then took us to the other side of the market where Nungwi and Matemwe dala dalas usually park. At first he said it was 3,500TSH and we said no cause we know it’s 2000TSH and we had to say no a couple times before he said fine 2,000TSH. But we finally successfully paid local price for both trips there and back! The man then asks us for money to buy a coke….we got on the dala dala and just ignored him. This was a traditional dala dala, with the back of a truck hollowed out and seats put in. We wanted to experience a ride on these, but perhaps not for a trip that was going to take at least an hour. We sat for around 10 minutes before it got full enough for them to leave. Chels had brought her backpack with her and put in between her knees on the floor and this local girl sat on the floor in front of her bag cause there was no room on the benches and she kept trying to open the zippers on Chels’ backpack…so sketchy. The ride has definitely been the most uncomfortable so far, it was impossible to move for majority of the hour we were on the bus because the cram an incredibly unsafe amount of people onto the dala dala and they go way too fast on the roads. Locals are always looking at us when we’re on the dala dala, especially because we had worn tank tops but covered our shoulders with a scarf. On the way home it was even worse, three school girls got on and were clearly talking about us and starring constantly. We all got really fed up with it, but couldn’t really say anything since we weren’t 100% sure they were talking about us…at one moment I was gonna say to Chels and Mylene, “I wonder how long it is appropriate to stare at someone before it becomes rude?”, but the dala dala got too packed after and so they stopped starring. The man sitting next to me was NOT happy with being trapped in the corner, he was grunting through the whole trip. Then I sat next to a lady that was sleeping the entire way, but she had ants crawling all over her…it was disgusting and they kept crawling onto my bag and I had to flick them off. The dala dalas are dreadful, but it’s the cheapest way to get to the beautiful beaches (dala dala = 2000TSH/$1.25USD, comparied to $50USD to take a cab) and it’s so worth it once we’re there.

Not my pictures, but just to show what a dala dala is like...

 At the end, inside the dala dala...this is when it's not busy.

 When it's so full, people need to hang on to the outside.

Side view.

Matemwe is known for its seaweed collection. We got there just before 11am and the tide was really low, there was no way we could have swam in the water. But because it was low, there was numerous women in the water collecting seaweed and it’s really interesting to see. After they collect the seaweed, they bring them back to shore to dry and then sell it and it gets used for cosmetics (makeup, lotions, etc.). When we were leaving, the tide had risen a lot and it would not have been possible for them to collect seaweed at that time, so it was good we went early and was able to capture them doing that. We also got to see all the seaweed hanging from racks and off stone walls drying. It’s such a different culture here and this is more unique to this area of the island. 

 Low tide.

 Sorting seaweed.

 Women in the low tide picking seaweed.

 All the little dots are women in the water.

 Close up.

 Empty resort.

Seaweed hang drying.

We walked on the beach (Matemwe is supposed to have the whitest sand on the island) and took pictures. There were no tourists at all, only locals so not only would we not have been able to swim because the tide was so low, but it would have also been uncomfortable to be our bikinis around so many locals. We headed back towards a restaurant we had passed earlier and saw some tourists in it. Turns out it was only one family and one other couple that were staying at the hotel. We ordered some drinks and sat at the restaurant for a bit, since their food menu wasn’t very extensive (they had 3 choices), and the tide wasn’t going to start to rise until 1pm, we decided to find another restaurant to eat at while we waited. We kept walking down the beach until we came upon another resort, we walked in looking for the restaurant and was blown away but how gorgeous the resort was. There were two pools with comfy, cushioned lounge chairs, clean towels, big umbrellas and no one was even using it! We asked to see the menu and it was a bit pricey; we also asked how much it would be to swim at the resort and we were told it would be $5USD to just swim but if we ate or had drinks there it would be free. We reasoned that it would be the same to eat somewhere else and then come back and pay the swimming fee so we ate there. We all ordered a prawn arrabbiata pasta and it was so good, perfect amount of spicy-ness. The service was also really good since we were the only ones there. We were curious to know how much it would cost to stay at the resort so we googled it with the free wifi available (the fastest internet we've had since being here). We realized that the pools were empty because each bungalow (there were 13 in the whole resort) had their own private pool…well I wouldn’t swim in a public one either if I had my own. And the price per person for high season, which is what it is now, was $190/night, way out of our budget. This was to our advantage though because after we ate we had the pools all to ourselves, it was paradise. Surrounded by palm trees, clean towels, clear blue skies and the sun shining brightly, we couldn’t have asked for a more relaxing day. At first I was disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to swim cause of the low tide, but that feeling dissipated as soon as we walked into this resort. I was so sad when we had to leave, we’re definitely going back.
The resort: http://www.zanzibar-retreats.com/green-and-blue-zanzibar.asp

 It's like ginger ale, but less sweet and more ginger-y.

 Goats on the beach.

Lunch at Green and Blue, yum.

 Top pool.

 Waterfall.

 Looking out into the ocean from the resort.

 Bottom pool and comfy loungers.

 Mylene and I.

 The three of us.

 Chels took a picture cause I look like a frog trying to tan the inner parts of my arms and legs in the water.

 Higher tide when we're leaving.

 So pretty.

 Cute children on the beach doing cartwheels and somersaults asking you to take a picture, then they ask for money.

Waiting for the dala dala to go home with several cows. 

SUNDAY

We slept in today and Mylene and I decided we wanted to eat something fairly cheap since the day before was a bit pricier. We looked in her Lonely Planet book for places we haven’t tried and decided to go to Al Shabani, which sells the typical local cuisine and it was close to our apartment. Chels wanted to do her own thing today so we went to lunch just Mylene and I. The restaurant was nice cause it was ac-ed, which is really rare here despite it being so hot all the time. We ordered biriani just to be safe, but the portions were large enough for two meals. The biriani tasted different from Passing Show and Lukmaan; the rice was softer and there was a stronger taste of cinnamon. We ended up paying 5,000TSH each (~ $3USD) for our meal and left with half of the meal to take home.

After lunch, we did more souvenir shopping. I finally bought a picture frame; I wanted a wood carved picture frame from here to put pictures we took here in them. The picture frame has an elephant carved on the top and bottom, a giraffe on each side and some trees. I really like it and it would be hard to find something like that at home.

We were running out of electricity AGAIN, so Chels put in another 70,000TSH. So far we’ve put in over $100USD worth of electricity. Hopefully this 70,000TSH will last us at least 2 weeks. The AC use is really draining, but it gets soo hot. I bought my first chocolate bar from here today, it was called a VIP; it was fairly good, chocolately and wafer-y. Chels bought some other sweets too that I got to try. Nothing super impressive yet, I would still prefer chocolate from home.

Vickie and I had planned to meet at Mercury’s, a restaurant close to our apartment, at 8pm today before she left home. So I got to the place at 8pm and waited an hour for her and Sandy and was starting to get worried. I should have checked the flight schedule to make sure it hadn’t been delayed. I’m standing outside and multiple locals have come up to me asking if I was okay because they went to pray at the mosque and came out and I was still just standing there; one guy asked if I had been sold…I don’t know if he was trying to be funny or meant to say something else but said it wrong in English. Then this man comes up to me and starts asking whether I’ve found my friends yet and how come I’m still waiting even though the ride from the airport was so long ago and I’m really confused at how he knows I’m waiting for friends coming from the airport. Then he realizes that I’m not who he had driven from the airport to here and he’s like are you the friend the girls were looking for and he tells me they’re waiting INSIDE Mercury’s for me. Thank God for this taxi driver and apparently for Asians looking similar haha. Meanwhile, Vickie was freaking out cause she thought something happened to me and cause she knows I wouldn’t be that late meeting them. I looked inside Mercury’s when I first got there, but only looked at the tables and not at the side where they were sitting. Relief on both ends, but such a simple mistake!

Glad to have found them, we dropped their stuff off at our apartment and I took them to eat at Forodhani. While we were waiting for our sugar cane juice, the local next to us started talking to us and when he found out we were from Canada he started speaking French. I was so surprised that he spoke French, it was pretty fluent too…way better than mine! It was good to see friendly faces from home and hear about their trip so far. Mylene and Chels were really accommodating with letting them sleep here. Our place is small and I told Vickie and Sandy they’d only have the living room, which is one tiny couch that I barely fit on. But since Rod wasn’t here, Mylene shared a bed with Chels and one of them shared a bed with me. It was the first time I spent the night in a non AC-ed room. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be since we left the AC on in the living room and the door open. I slept through the night fine and was only slightly sticky in the morning. Mylene thought the AC room was too cold cause she only had a light sheet as a blanket, haha you would never think she would prefer her stuffy room to an AC-ed room!

MONDAY

We got up and went to work for 8am this morning cause our supervisor wanted to start earlier so we would have time to go to the school. When she came in this morning though, she told us we couldn’t go to the school today because her brother-in-law passed away today and they have the funeral the same day, so she would have to leave at 9am. It was a legitimate reason to cancel on the plans, it was weird though cause she didn’t seem phased by it at all or seemed upset by it.

The first boy we saw, all three of us worked with him together. He was really sweet and cooperative, doing all the activities we put in front of him. Chels noticed that his right index finger had the front tip amputated before we started therapy. Amina tells us that this 3-4 year old boy had taken a knife to his own finger and tried to cut if off because it wasn’t working properly…this was so heartbreaking to think about. This young child, had felt so frustrated at himself, that he felt a need strong enough amputate his finger. I can’t even comprehend that; it shows how much a disability can affect even such a young child, but also how affective therapy at an early point in diagnosis could be beneficial. His right arm and hand are still not at its fully functional capacity, but he is able to use it and with proper therapy he should improve. Amina also told us that he told her once that he would bring her a gift because his family has a fruit tree (like a lychee) the next time he comes in, so when he goes home he asks someone to pick some fruit for him and he keeps telling his mom he needs to go back to the hospital. His mom brings him to the administration building one day, not for OT, because they needed to do something else but he insists over and over on coming by the OT department and when he got there he pulls out some fruits from his pocket to give to Amina. The most precious and thoughtful kid, that’s adorable. He ended up having such a good time in therapy today that he didn’t want to leave.

We had a really good morning at work, all the kids I saw were cooperative and easy to work with. And even the parents that came in we’re much more interactive and wanting to partake in their child’s therapy. Mylene and I worked with the same boy that had recently gotten a circumcision and his mom showed us the last time they were in. We worked on weight bearing of the upper limbs by having him lie prone and we did rolling exercises; afterwards the mom asked us to show her again what we were doing so she could do the same at home. Her English wasn’t good but with gestures and a couple of words we understood what she was trying to say and then she also brought in someone else with better English to make sure she understood what needed to be done. This is the first time since I’ve started my placement here that I’ve been fully able to educate a parent on exercises and positioning at home they could do. The thing is that the children come in only once every two weeks and if nothing is being done at home the progression would be really slow and the home environment is one of the most important factors in helping a child become as independent as they can be. Also, this mom that we educated was breastfeeding after the therapy session and another mom sitting next to her whose child Chels was working with, starting explaining to the mom how to properly position her baby during feeding to make sure his hands aren’t in awkward positions. It’s amazing to see the parents helping each other out!

After work, we came home to meet up with Vickie and Sandy and we took them to Lukmaan for lunch so they could have local food from Zanzibar and it would be cheap. Then we dropped them off at the market to catch their dala dala to Nungwi, where they’re spending the next couple days. I still haven’t heard from them, so I’m hoping they made it there okay.

We bought cassava chips to try, they were good…really crunchy and both spicy and salty. And I bought another chocolate bar to try today, it was called Apella and it was white chocolate with wafers in side, it was yummy. I brought a bag of chocolates from Costco to give as a gift here, but the bag is huge and I couldn’t 

help but start eating it since I’m so chocolate deprived here. We haven’t ate too many, still ¾ of the bag left for sure, but it’s definitely nice to have a treat from home every couple days, thank you Costco.

Tomorrow marks one month since the day we left home and after tomorrow there is only one month left here. Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve already been here for a month and how adjusted we’ve become to living here. I’m surprised that I’ve never fully hit culture shock since we’ve been here. But there’s still a month left and lots of things to do and see!