~Zanzibar~

With its little winding streets and veiled women is completely a mysterious adventure awaiting exposure. I could not believe how fast I fell in love with this island. It was love at first sight. I would move here in a split minute, you know every local here is Muslim maybe I could open a mission, any churches want to support me?! Haha… Zanzibar is quaint and historical but still completely moving and complex, besides the fact that there is no pharmacy. Beautiful does not even begin to explain the sight! I recommend anyone to go, more than any other place I have ever been. The reasons I like it so much are: I feel safe alone, the people have this island relaxed attitude and are friendly, the beaches are crystal perfect, it is historical, it has winding little roads that you have to walk or ride your bike down, it is Arab and has the décor in every building, It is Africa, It is cheap, its perfect… I just feel a little weird driving to go to the beach in my sundress and bathing suit and every women I see driving has a burqa on, a lot are covering their whole faces.

So the inconvenient story… I came to Zanzibar on a 3 hour ferry Tuesday with intentions of just staying the day in Zanzibar to save money and because I wanted to get to Kampala sooner than I had planned. I got to Zanzibar and fell in love, I stayed at the beach all day then the taxi took me on a tour of Stone Town and to a coffee shop/ hotel that I fell so deeply in love with that I almost cried when I had to leave to board my ship. I got back on the ship to go to Dar re Salaam, the ship would get to the mainland at 6am and then I would rush to the bus terminal to get on my Kampala coach that was scheduled to leave at 6:30am. On the ship I called Continental to change my ticket to go back to Texas early and the lady gave me my new flight schedule and then said that is going to be $4,000.00… ahhhh… that is ridiculous. I hung up and decided to go back to Zanzibar. That night there was a storm and I have never been so ready to die. I repented for every bad look I had ever given anyone. It was a huge ship and we were going up and down side to side, things were falling, chairs were shifting, it was flippin’ scary! I was assessing the situation, I was in VIP, which is at the top-level of the boat. Below there is 1^st class, economy, and people sleeping on the patio. Economy was populated to the point of not being able to move. I was thinking if this ship wrecks I am not going to die from drowning (I know where the life jackets are), or shark feast, I am going to die from stampede of people trying to get out of the ship. We didn’t wreck thank God, even though I got no sleep! I listened to Bill Johnson Podcast all night for comfort! Haha.. So the next morning I went back to the ferry office, because I talked to other whites on the boat and they paid $20 for their ticket and I paid $30. I went to the office told the guy I wanted another ticket back to Zanzibar on a speed boat with a $20 discount because he had cheated me before. He gave me a 'nationa' priced ticket, so when I got on the boat the attendants were inquisitive about me being a Tanzanian without my passport, asking me what I do, not wanting to let me on the boat, finally they did though! I got on the boat and went back to Zanzibar. I have been trying to spot dead bodies in the ocean because of the Yemen airliner that went down going to Mafia, this Island here next to Zanzibar. There are around 153 dead people not found. I keep expecting to see something floating in the water. I got back to Zanzibar exhausted and went to a hotel and slept for a couple of hours. The hotel I am staying in is a family home that this Arab man has transformed into a hotel. It is nice family style apartments. I shared my apartment with an Irish couple and an Indian couple last night. Best thing about it is that it is walk able distance to the beach, breakfast included $25 a night. That is special. Yesterday after I woke up I went to the beach stayed there all day, walked home, and got dressed to go to this nice hotel for supper and I fell asleep and didn’t wake up till this morning. Guess I really needed it! My hotel room has a baby crib in it. It is raining cats and dogs right now. I am going to leave my hotel and try to find a place with internet and then do some touring of some of the Sultan palaces and slave trade places. You know Zanzibar is the birth-place of Swahili, it is where most of the African slave trade worked from, and it is part of Tanzania but has its own separate president and army apart from the Tanzanian government. Ok now I need to go.