Let us begin.
Kwaheri Ifakara
I ended up spending two full weeks in Ifakara, my second and third weeks in Tanzania. When I last posted I was only one week into my stay and was lamenting my lack of work or purpose. I’m happy to say that things sort of came together by the end and I was able to create the HIV-status database that I was originally sent there to work on. I didn’t get anywhere close to finishing, since I only ended up with about four weekdays to work on it, but at least I accomplished something. I may go back in July if my work trip to Dodoma doesn’t happen.
On my last weekend in Ifakara, Joffrey took me on the bike ride he’d long been proposing. (I also learned that his name is actually spelled Geofrey, but I’d rather have a friend called Joffrey, so we’ll just stick with that.) We decided to bike out to the ferry 30 minutes away or so. Why? It was the only thing to see within biking distance! Joffrey found a free bike for me from some guy he knew, and we were off down the road. The trip was vaguely terrifying – my bike didn’t really have brakes, as far as I can tell helmets aren’t sold in Tanzania, dust obscured all visibility at times, and our foot-wide path at the shoulder of the road was host to two-way bike traffic. Luckily we biked very slowly and made it to the ferry in one piece, where we had delicious mango drinks, watched disgruntled people and animals ride back and forth across the river, and were offered very overpriced boat rides to see hippos down the river.
We made it back from biking safely, and over the rest of the weekend I hung out more with the entomologists and had a father’s day family Skype. I was more than ready to go home by the time Tuesday rolled around, and I departed at 6 a.m. under cover of darkness with the driver and Joffrey in tow. I had the whole back seat to myself and the eight-hour ride passed pleasantly enough. After getting home in the early afternoon and going for a run, I reunited with Jeanie and we went off to see Star Trek Into Darkness, which we loved! We got a bajaj to a great theater for about $2 and tickets were only $5. We’ll definitely be going a lot - tonight, in fact, we’re going to go see Man of Steel. The theatre is in a very modern American-like mall, with excellent 3D and comfortable seats. The contrasts and contradictions of Tanzania are never-ending.
For the rest of the week, I went over to Temeke hospital to get access to their neonatal registers, in order to ultimately create the same sort of database here that I was working on in Ifakara. Like all bureaucratic processes, we had tons of hoops to jump through, but finally got access to the registers. I had the idea to take good-quality photographs of all the pages so we would have a preliminary digital record before I entered the data. This would also do away with having to get to Temeke every day – it’s not in a safe neighborhood and takes more than an hour by car, given all the traffic. All was going well until Salum tried to fix my camera’s zoom and accidentally deleted all the photographs I’d already taken, a few hours of work. We laughed, sighed, and like so many things, an originally simple plan would take longer than anticipated! Low expectations and prioritizing fun times are clearly the keys to a worthwhile summer here.
A few days after getting back, I finally got to meet some of the mysterious new friends Jeanie made in my absence. A sizeable group got together on Thursday night to go out for Thai food and karaoke. Most of us would be going to Zanzibar on the weekend, so I got a head start on introductions and some decent pad thai to boot!
Karibu Zanzibar!
After being back in Dar for only three days, it was time for our long-awaited safari to Zanzibar. We managed to pull together a really big, diverse group. Jeanie met Becca, who graduated a few years ago, through the Harvard in Africa student database. There were 9 of us total, 7 girls and 2 guys, all connected in various ways – from undergrad, grad school, work, and friends of friends. Most people were grad students doing international development-type work, but Jeanie and I certainly felt like we fit in. It was also great to see how very interesting and fun life was for this extraordinary (and probably not representative) group of mid-20-year-olds. I’ve never been around so many highly educated, multi-lingual and well-travelled young adults!
We all planned to arrive Friday afternoon. Most people took the ferry from Dar, but Jeanie and I found last-minute cheap plane tickets that were the same price. Our plane was tiny, a little 12-seater, and in no time at all we were cruising over the Indian Ocean and touching down in Zanzibar. We arrived before most of the group and spent the two hours before their arrival wandering around Stone Town. We had no idea where to go, so we completely missed the touristy section and instead found ourselves in an authentic bazaar alleyway, where locals would go to buy everyday goods and there was nary a mzungu in sight. I got a traditional ankle-length dress that Muslim women would wear. I love the pattern and will probably shorten it a lot. On our way back, we hit up lots of food vendors, where we had dried dates galore, octopus, and a peanut brittle-like bar.
Just when we couldn’t eat any more, it was time to meet up with the rest of the group and go to Mtoni Palace, historical ruins right outside of town that host a beautiful song-and-dance history show every Friday night. We’d heard from many a tripadvisor review that it was not to be missed, and they were absolutely right. The old fortress was gently lit with hundreds of softly glowing candles and thin white drapes, while we got to hear its history through music and narration. There was a delicious buffet dinner, dancing by all, and a beautiful eerie stillness when we ascended the seaside ramparts under the nearly full moon.
Saturday: Stone Town, Prison Island, Full Moon party
Many fish, chips, and drinks later, we deemed it go-time. The party was a five-minute walk down the beach from our accommodations, and we arrived at a pounding scene filled with hundreds of people, vacationers and locals alike. Bongo flava mixed with Gangnam Style, Shakira, and electro-pop for a truly unique musical mix in this two-floor dance shack, filled to the brim with people spilling out onto the sandy bar scene surrounding the dance floor. I had a great time in my best party clothes (running shorts and tank tops forever), and stayed until four in the morning with the Jeanie and the guys. The rest of the group had trickled back in the early hours before us, so we finished off the night with a moonlit skinny-dip in the ocean and a trek back to our rooms, where we discovered, joy of joys, that there was no water (or fan, or effective bug screens, but that’s beside the point). We were too tired to care, and with salty bodies and sandy feet, we fell asleep with the waves crashing a few hundred feet away.
Sunday: A turn for the worse, a triumphant bounce back!
Sunday morning broke bright and early, and after a few hours of sleep I realized I’d definitely be paying the price for the party’s excesses. Half the group was planning to spend the day snorkeling at a coral reef 40 minutes away by boat, and having never snorkeled, much less seen a coral reef, I was definitely going. I severely underestimated my physical condition, though, and ended up spending half the ride with my head hanging over the side, gloriously vomiting into the bright blue waters. I did get it together to snorkel, but returned to the boat early, miserable, shaking, and still retching, with nothing to do but wait it out.
Getting back to land in the early afternoon helped, and after a rinse-off and some bread and water, I was starting to feel a bit better. I paid a pittance for an amazing beachside massage, and spent the late afternoon relaxing in the shade by the water. By the time we drove back to Stone Town at six, I was back to my old self. The rest of the group caught their flights back to the mainland, but Jeanie and I had planned to take Monday off of work to see more of the island. We had dinner at the night market in the old center of town, Forodhani Gardens, a massive outdoor square filled with seafood vendors. We piled our plates high with octopus, lobster, dorado, insanely delicious baby shark, falafel, seasoned breads, sugarcane juice, and sugary fruit smoothies.
After that amazing dinner, we hopped a taxi to Cristal Resort on the eastern shore of the island (Stone Town is on the west). We arrived an hour and a half later, and by ten at night we were nestled into the most luxurious place we’d ever been. Right on the water, the smoothest sand possible, amazing price, a soft large bed, HOT RUNNING WATER, the works.
We woke up early-ish, as we didn’t want to miss a minute of this amazing day. Breakfast was an endless delectable buffet of passion fruit, papaya, brioche rolls, eggs, crepes, mango jam, watermelon and passion fruit juice, and more. We stuffed ourselves silly and spent the rest of our time wandering far through the low-tide surf, along the beach, and by the pool; collecting shells, on my part, and reading, on Jeanie’s part. We finished off the perfect day with a fish burger and sushi for our ride back to the airport in Stone Town.
Of course, the minute we got back to Dar, things went wrong. Our bajaj driver went to our hostel because he thought we wanted to go to the airport (despite having driven Jeanie to the airport on Friday…); finally, after more than an hour of waiting, we were on our way back home. Once we got home we discovered that even though we’d told them when we’d be back, they hadn’t written it in their book of reservations, so we didn’t have a room. Luckily Jeanie’s new co-intern Freddie had just arrived at our place, so we crashed in his room for the night. I passed an uncomfortable night on the floor, unable to sleep from residual acidic burning in my throat – yay!
There’s a silver lining to everything, though; I don’t have to work today and can spend the day relaxing at the hostel, catching up on my blogging, moving back into our room once it opens, probably napping, and, most importantly, making sleeping and transport arrangements for Kilimanjaro! We’ll be leaving on Friday morning, by 13-hour bus ride if we can’t find a very cheap flight (unlikely at this time). We’ll need to book a hostel for two nights before our hike and a night after, and get all our stuff packed! In and out, in and out, has been and will be my life. We’ll be back in Dar around July 7th and will only have one month left then! I’ll probably spend a week or two of that time away for work, but I’m determined to be in town for my 21st birthday weekend to experience Dar at night. Even better, I can double-team my birthday with Dave, one of our Zanzibar travel buddies whose birthday (30!) is two days after mine. Lots to celebrate, lots to learn. Our time here is nearly halfway over and it’s flown by.
I’ll try to put up my next Crimson postcard before heading off to Kilimanjaro, which will create another long blog break. Until next time, then! Asante sana, as always, for reading along.