Exciting Adventures Around Every Corner

Things are still going well here in Zanzibar, and I am starting to have somewhat of a schedule every day. My day normally goes as follows: Wake up at about 7:00am, get ready for school, eat a banana before leaving the house, walk 5 minutes to school, have class from 8:00am-12:00pm, then go to Stone Town for a little while (exploring and getting very lost), going back home to rest before dinner, have a big dinner, relax with the family, and go to bed at about 9:30pm or 10:00pm. Now let me break some of this down for you because things do not always go according to how I want them and that is something you learn from Zanzibari culture.

As you know from my last blog, I have switched houses so I can be closer to my school and Stone Town. I was looking forward to this change because that would mean more privacy for me and my things and a better location to go out and explore Stone Town which is the historical/tourist area of Zanzibar. So I woke up at 7:00am my first morning there to take a shower before going to school and I am very lucky because I have my own bathroom that is attached to my room and when I looked, it had a shower! This was very exciting for me because I had heard that some homes only have buckets to bathe with. So I wake up and get ready for my shower, turn the dial and nothing happened. Thinking that something must be wrong, I went to go ask Mariam (the maid) if there was something wrong. At this point she informed me that the water to the shower does not work and that I would have to use the water in the green bucket next to the shower to bathe with. Therefore, I took my very first of many "bucket baths." I do not mind so much because I think it is faster than a regular shower, but the only problem is that the water is always freezing cold because they do not have hot water in the house. But it definitely wakes me up in the morning!

The month of September is also Ramadan in the Islamic religion and is the month of fasting. So everyone in the family fasts all day with no food or water! And it is considered to be rude to eat in front of Muslims if you are not Muslim, therefore I eat a banana in my room every morning before school so that no one has to watch me eat. And the bananas here are amazing! They are little, about 1/2 the size of the bananas in America, and they are sweet.

Walking to school in normally uneventful but with several people always telling me "hallo" or "howareyou" haha! I will sometimes respond in Swahili and leave them looking very confused. School is really good because we talk about everything and laugh a lot! It is a really relaxing environment, very good for learning.

Next comes Stone Town which is beautiful and mystical because there are very tall stone buildings with winding alleyways where you are sure to get lost almost every time, but there is always someone who will point you in the right direction. But you have to be careful because there are a lot of local shops that try to rip you off and they hassle you to come in and buy their product. The other day one of them followed me at least a block trying to sell me a wooden carving that I was not the least bit interested in. But again, that is just part of the way of life here in Stone Town. I am really happy that I found 2 good free wireless Internet cafes in Stone Town, so I have uploaded some pictures onto Snapfish, but it takes a while so be patient with the pictures.

As part of Ramadan, everyday in the evening, there is a really big dinner at about 6:30pm because that is the only time you can eat or drink all day in Islamic culture. So I'm always home for that and Mama Rahma always makes really really good food! But after we eat, everyone goes into this sleepy spell and falls asleep for about 20 minutes haha! And then I normally do my homework and head off to bed for a good night of sleep under my mosquito net.

The other evening however, I came home to discover something very interesting. After being in Stone Town for the afternoon, I was pretty sweaty and exhausted. So when I came home I went in my room and went to go open the bathroom door. When I stepped my foot into the door, a RAT RAN into my FOOT and around the wall into my bedroom!!!! I did not scream, but jumped about 2 feet into the air and said a few choice words. Trying very hard to keep my composure, I quickly left my room to go tell someone about the rodent in my bedroom! Mama Rahma did not look surprised but asked me how big it was and I told her about 7 inches long. She then instructed me to close my door (which I already did) and that we would take care of it after dinner.

Still jittery, I did not have much of an appetite for dinner but was very anxious and slightly scared. So after dinner, the 3 men that were at the house entered into my room and searched everywhere for the rat, but it was never found... So they reassured me that it probably just went back to where ever it came from outside. It did take me quite a long time to fall asleep that night, and I was curled up in the middle of the bed the whole night. My mosquito net does not protect me from rats!

So as you can see, things sometimes do not run at a normal rate here in Zanzibar, but I am still loving it and meeting some wonderful people here as well! I have been to the beach several times and put my feet into the Indian Ocean! But there is still so much to explore and discover here in Zanzibar, but hopefully I will have some more exciting tales to tell next time!