Family Fun!

This past weekend was either very fast or very slow paced for me. One Friday I was supposed to go to Stone Town to have some drinks with some friends of mine, but a little before we were going to leave, the power went out. Now this is a very regular occurrence here on Zanzibar and it is not just a certain area that goes out of power, it is the whole island! So our plans were canceled on the account that no one would have power. So I just stayed at home with the family and they told some stories about a power outage about a year ago when the whole island was out of power for 1 month! And it was only until President Bush came to Zanzibar and donated money that the power was restored. I thought that was very interesting and I can only pray that that incident will not reoccur while I am here.

Every year, Hafith's family gathers during Ramadan for a big family celebration with a lot of food. This year, Hafith volunteered his home for the party. The party was set for Saturday at about 6:00pm and I was unsure what time I was going to be picked up from the house I am staying in because the party was at the other house. So I did not do anything all day because I did not want them to come to get me and me not be in the house. So I just kind of lounged around all day watching TV mostly haha. But then, I ran into my little friend "the rat". As I was sitting in the living room watching TV, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw something scurry across the floor on the other side of the room. Thinking I was just paranoid, I ignored it but raised my guard a little bit. Then, I saw the silhouette of a mouse climbing up the curtain...at this point, I was over the mouse and I really didn't care what it did. So I have come to the conclusion that the rat is more afraid of me than I am of it and if I see it again, I will simply ignore it. I just went about my business for the remainder of the afternoon and then at about 6:00pm Mama Rahma's brother came to pick up me and the "maids" and bring us to the party.

When we arrived, there were people everywhere! Over 100 people both men, women, and children. The men were on one side of the house and the women were on the other, and when the time came to eat, the women ate first. The food was arranged on mats on the floor and everyone sat in a big rectangle around all the food. People really crammed in... Now when I normally eat dinner with the family, we have plates and utensil's are available if you would like to use them. That was not the case here because in Islamic culture, it is custom to eat with your hands out of the communal tray of food. So all the women around me just started digging (literally) into the food before us. Seeing the method of their eating habits, my appetite dropped severely. And the women around me noticed because they kept telling me "eat eat eat!" and I would respond with "Nimeshiba" which means I am full. But all the women were dressed in their colorful kangas making the room very beautiful and bright. Feeling rather overwhelmed by all the people, I spent the remainder of the evening upstairs in the house and up on the roof where you can see the whole island!

Feeling very tired, I went to bed right when I got back home because I had to wake up early the next morning to go to mass (at the correct Church). The English Mass was at 7:00am!! which is waaay too early if you ask me. So I had to leave the house at about 6:30am to get there in time. It felt really nice to be at the right church and know what was going on and the church itself is very beautiful and old. I put some pictures of it up on Snapfish, so be sure to check them out. Later on Sunday, Klara and I went to a "tourist" restaurant called Livingstone in Stone Town to have some drinks and talk about our weekends. And I have now tried 2 different Tanzanian beers because they do not have a drinking age here because Muslims do not drink. They were okay, but all Tanzanian beers are normally light in color (not my favorite). So basically my weekend was a mixture of craziness and boredom but a new week awaits!