Zanzibar

Here's to another week living the dream!

After putting in so much work in our classes we have reached the part of school everybody looks forward to… break. I present to you… Springbreaking in Zanzibar (yes it's spring here.. southern hemisphere, science, something like that).

Lets start with some more vocab for the week:

Shikamoo: A formal greeting used to greet elders and people you respect
Marahaba: The reply to shikamoo
Babu: Grandfather 
Bibi: Grandmother 
kucheka: to laugh 
piga picha: take a picture 
kula: to eat 

We left Iringa last saturday morning for Zanzibar (the island that joined with Tanganyinka to form The United republic of Tanzania in 1964). We took a tiny plane to Dar es Salaam and on the way we had to make a stop in a national park to pick up some more passengers. When we landed I thought I was hallucinating or something but there were elephants and zebras surrounding the runway. I was so shocked I didn’t even get a picture but it felt like it wasn’t real. It was so cute.

We took off a couple hours later for a 20 minute flight to Zanzibar where a taxi took us to Michamvi Beach to Mpole Bungalows. Mpole was the owner and probably one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life (if anyone reading this ever goes to Zanzibar, I recommend you stay there). 

We spent the week relaxing on the beach, eating amazing food like spiced ice cream (everybody knows I love ice cream), and meeting people. One of the days we went to Stone Town (the old town) and we went to Changu Island and took a city tour. At one part of the island there are hundreds of huge tortoises that we got to feed which was equally disgusting and adorable. Changu Island is also called "Prison Island" because it is where enslaved Africans were held before being sold at the slave market in Zanzibar. In the town there is a museum of the site of the slave market and it was very powerful. I'll leave some of the writings in the photos. 

The rock restaurant was very close to where we were staying, which is something people recognize Zanzibar tourism for, so we went there for an amazing meal and a great view.

Great news! I “learned how to swim” meaning I took my life jacket off while I was snorkeling for about 15 seconds. Snorkeling was amazing though and everything I saw under the surface impressed me so much. 

The last night, Mpole prepared an amazing feast for us with 3 different types of fish and dozens of sides and desserts made in Zanzibar. 

The next morning we took the ferry to Dar. It was a 2 hour ride and so comfortable. We were in Dar for a night, so naturally we decided to go to the mall. We went to Subway, KFC, a gelato shop, and then back to KFC… all in about an hour. Clearly we missed them a little tiny bit. After the night in Dar we flew back to Iringa (home sweet home!) and landed at about 9 am and headed straight to church. There’s an English speaking one that we just heard about so we decided to check it out.

It was great to have a break in paradise, but it was so beautiful knowing that I’m in the right (perfect) place because I really missed Iringa while we were gone. I really do love Iringa and would for sure move here if the option ever came up. 

We are exactly halfway through the program and I feel like we’ve been here for about 2 weeks. I'm already planning how I can find my way back here after this all ends.

Happy as always, and loving everything day by day. 

-Jewell

#StudyAbroadSoBlack