The view from my room at Baby Bush Lodge, Kiwengwa on the east coast of Zanzibar
At the beginning of November we celebrated Eid el Haj with the Kitwana family, the Muslim celebration of the end of Haj to Mecca. The celebration began with a huge washing session in the lake (of clothes and people) and afterwards the cooking fest started. First of all was a huge breakfast of cookies, cakes and chipati, washed down with chai na maziwa (sweet, milky spicy tea). Then the cooking for lunch started – pillau – probably my favourite Pemban dish. In many ways it was just like Christmas at home, with all the children dressed up in new matching outfits, lots of special food, napping and watching television.
Everyone dressed up for the evening celebrations
After lunch we gave all of the family presents, gifts to say thank you for looking after us so well, but also to celebrate Eid. Everyone was chuffed, especially baby Sahle who loved the wrapping paper so much he cried when we helped him unwrap his etch-a-sketch, so we had to wrap it back up! It also proved a good distraction for the rest of the day, with everyone occupied with their new gifts. We also found that fart jokes are universally amusing, so spent much of the rest of the time in Pemba giggling with the girls.
Sahle and Sada with their presents
In the evening we took the children (or rather they took us) to a children’s festival in the town. These are held in all villages and towns all over Pemba throughout Eid, and basically comprise of street food stalls, cheap Chinese plastic toys and hoards of children. There are almost no adults there, which is a strange sight, but it was no way near the chaos hundreds of lone children would have caused in the UK. Anyway the girls seemed happy to show off their ‘wazungu’ to all their friends and introduce us to different kinds of street food, most of which were yummy – even including ice cream!
Pink ice cream to match the Barbie dress
The rest of the holiday was spent visiting various family members, who all greeted us with strong coffee, cakes and biscuits, more trips to the children’s festivals (for which a new matching outfit was brought out for each of the children) and helping Mama with the cooking. Sumaya, the eldest daughter, taught me to make chapattis, which is a much more laborious and time consuming task than I had realized. I don’t think I have the kneading skills quite down yet, but maybe during unemployment back home I can utilize my new skills.
Learning to become cheif chapatti chef
Once Eid was over and I had wrapped up the final project documents and evaluations it was time to say goodbye to our friends in Pemba. I had been on the project for 12 weeks, and it was sad that my work was finally over, but I was also ready to move on. Although I loved Pemba and got on with the people I worked with, there have been a number of frustrations and issues in setting up the project that really have to wait until the next project to be resolved. All I can say is I hope the project gets the go ahead next year and continues to develop – Pemban schools really need support, especially in English language, and have little overseas support, so volunteering such as this can really benefit (www.tenteleni.org.uk).
Now we were ready for the next stage of the adventure however – four weeks of travelling in Tanzania mainland and then back to Zanzibar for some R&R. First stop was the Ngezi Peninsular at the northern-most point of Pemba, the area most noted for its beaches and sea life. Getting there was quite an adventure though. From Chake Chake we threw our bikes on a dala-dala for the two hour drive to Konde, the furthest north they go. From there we strapped our luggage on the back of the bikes and cycled the 15km to the Swhaili Divers resort through Ngezi Forest, an indigenous tropical forest home to monkeys and a huge number of birds. It was a great adventure along a dirt path, much of which was flooded, and then to finally arrive at the beautiful resort (www.swahilidivers.com). Everyone was surprised to see us arrive by bike, and by the evening everyone knew us as the crazy girls who cycled here! A quick dip in the sea and a gin and tonic (or few) was awaiting us on arrival, much to our relief.
Perfect sundowner location
For the next four days we studied for our open water diver qualification, the first two days were taken up by theory DVDs, tests, practicing skills in the swimming pool and a final exam – which we both passed with 100% - A* pupils! Then finally we were allowed in the ocean. The first time in the water was incredible, once I had mastered breathing normally and could look around. The visibility was amazing, with a huge array of fish. Over the next two days we completed four dives to different reefs on that strip of coast line. Our final dive sight was named Aquarium – it was easy to see why – there were fish and coral as far as you could see and it felt like someone had artificially made everything brighter, beautiful!
Some above water activity
From there we made our way back to Chake Chake, collected our belongings and flew over to Tanga on the Tanzania mainland, from where we hitched a ride with an expat couple to Lushoto in the Usumbara Mountains for a hiking adventure. Our bodies had no idea what was going on, in a few hours we had been hurtled from sweaty humid sea level to freezing temperatures at 1,500 meters – although finally the jumpers I’ve been carrying around for months came in handy. We woke up to beautiful scenery and a totally different environment to Pemba. The first day we walked about 10km to a nunnery down the valley as we had heard they made cheese there. We were not disappointed – plentiful cheese and jam awaited us and made the walk in the sun totally worth it.
I will hike anywhere for cheese (the wine wasn't quite such a hit though...)
The next day we started off on a three day hike across the mountains, with stunning views overlooking the plains below, a picnic at a farm for more homemade cheese, a night at an orphanage, another night at a mountain hut, and finally finishing at the town of Mombo. From there we caught the bus (after waiting for a few hours at a dubious road side café called Liverpool restaurant) to Arusha.
Irente Point after our first day of hiking
Our arrival at Ausha was rather frenzied – we were greeted by tens of touts trying to get us in their taxi, on their safari or to buy Massi jewellery. Unfortunately it ended up in a big fist fight between the men, but we arrived in our hostel intact with all our luggage. The main reason for our trip to Arusha was to organize a safari, and soon we were on our way to the Serengeti and Ngorogoro Crater. They lived up to expectation, with leopard, cheetah, lions and elephants all coming to say hello.
Our safari group - Peter the cook, Beth, Olga, Ina, Godfrey, Sam, me and Lucas
Tents, camp fires, marshmallows, wine and Konyagi, a lethal local spirit, made up for the lack of partying in Pemba. Soon we were practicing Swahili on the local rangers, until we were told to go to bed by Peter the cook.
It started out so civilized...
Our trip back to Arusha was eventful – after a night of heavy rain a bridge between the national park and Arusha had been swept away, and large sections of the road had disappeared, making it impossible for vehicles to pass. Fortunately after a couple of hours of waiting around the army recruits had cleared a path and we arrived back in Arusha at nightfall. The next day it was time to make our way back south to Dar-es-Salaam. What had been sold as a 9 hour bus ride actually turned into a 14 hour nightmare and another late night arrival into a bus depot. We were also welcomed by the heat and humidity, just as we’d got acclimatised to the cold of the north. Then it was time to say goodbye to Beth as she flew back to the UK. I was not alone for long though – in no time I was back in Stonetown to visit Anna for a joyous LSE reunion – for once not in the library!
