Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A little Zanizbar Culture and History for Ya!

Today I have officially been gone from the US for a month, and I don't know where the time went! I am about finished with the "beginners" course of Swahili at which point I will start with the "intermediate" course. I also learned that since I will be at the school for 3 months, I will actually "graduate" from the school and leave with a certificate basically saying that I am supposed to be able to speak Swahili haha! But I was pretty pumped when I heard that! Also, there are only a few days left in Ramadan and then it will be Ede. Now Ede religiously is only one day, but in Zanzibar they celebrate it for 4 days! And just to simplify things, Ede is like Christmas for Muslims--a time to pray, celebrate with family, give gifts (especially to children), and eat amazing food! So Zanzibar will be having a big party for 4 days next week and I am soooo excited to be a part of it! It is all the locals talk about, and some people re-do their houses and get new carpets, curtains, and paintings. Last night Hafith was actually complaining about how expensive everything is during this time; a typical dad mentality who has a 1 year old and a 7 year old.

This past weekend I spent a lot of time at the beach...go figure. But I actually got somewhat of a tan, so that was pretty exciting. The locals do not understand why "westerners" want to become darker. If you see anyone from Zanzibar by the beach, they are normally in a t-shirt and pants, trying to protect their skin (smart idea). But on Saturday, some of the people I was with wanted to go to a local market by the beach we were at. Normally this would be about a 7 minute dalla dalla bus ride, but they wanted to walk. Trying not to be the "Debbie Downer," I did not voice my concern about it being waaaay too hot to walk that far in the middle of the day! So we walked and we walked and we walked, for about 20 minutes in the direct sunlight! I was literally pouring sweat from everywhere and so were they, and it was at this point that we all wished we had taken the dalla dalla. But at least we got to the market and were only there for about 10 minutes. In my opinion, the only good thing I got out of the market trip was to discover that things were cheapest there than anywhere else because it is a local market, away from all the tourist places. The next day at the beach, I met a really nice girl from London currently living in Dar es Salaam, but she came to Zanzibar for the weekend. We talked a lot and exchanged phone numbers, so that if and when I travel the Dar, I will certainly have to give her a call.

I know that I have said that the food here is amazing, which it is, but for some reason, every night at dinner, I lose my appetite and I can't eat a lot. This apparently really bothers Mama Rahma because every night, she asks me if something is wrong because I am not eating a lot. She has also asked me a lot of questions about what I like to eat, but this is a hard question to answer because the food at home is not comparable with the food here. When asked if I liked seafood, I of course said yes and told her that I come from an area that is well known for its seafood. The very next night she cooked "seafood" which basically was a whole fish that was grilled and then cut in half. When I say whole fish, this means that it was not de-scaled, the head was still on, and it was looking right at me. So feeling rather bad that she cooked it for me, I went to pick a piece up to at least try it, but once I touched it, there was no way I could bring myself to eat it, unless I wanted to be sick. So Mama Rahma and I will continue to have this ongoing battle of trying to find out what I really like.

Also, the teacher who has been teaching us this whole month had a family emergency in Dar es Salaam, so we have a different teacher for the last week. And our new teacher is amazing! We basically just talk the whole class and don't worry too much about the book. He said that the important thing is that we are comfortable with talking basic Swahili. And to this statement, I couldn't agree more! Just in this week so far, I feel so much more confident in my communicating skills. I am hoping to continue private lessons with this teacher in October, being that the school is closed in October because it is their "planning month" (whatever that means).

Today being Wednesday, the school takes the beginner students somewhere to learn about the local area, so today we went to the Palace Museum located on the coast of Stone Town. It was fairly interesting, but I was so amazed at how un-preserved things were. First of all, there is no air conditioning in the building and therefore they have all the windows open letting in all the humid air from the ocean right in through the windows. Also, a lot of things that should maybe be in glass cases weren't. It was just amazing to me that century old history is not being cared for as it should be. But basically the palace was home of the Omani Sultan in the 1800s. Right next to the Palace Museum is the House of Wonders which we didn't get to see today, but I will definitely make my way there sometime soon. I have learned that the history of Zanzibar is completely separate from the rest of Tanzania and Africa. Mainly because they were not part of the European colonization of Africa. They had already been inhabited by the Arabs from Oman, and at one point Zanzibar was the capital of Oman. Now I have not completely figured that one out just yet? Also, the shortest war in history took place on Zanzibar, lasting only 45 minutes! WOW!

So there is your little dose of Zanzibar history and I'm sure I will find out a lot more history during my travels here. As far as my plans for this weekend, my friend Klara (from Sweden) and I are going to go to another island about 30 minutes away from the Zanzibar port called Prison Island. This island was part of the great slave trade that took place in Zanzibar, and it is also home to the large tortoises. So I am really excited about that, and I can add those to my monkey pictures! But until next time! Kwaheri!

1 comment:

divyesh said...

It is very informative blog for any tour. I read such blogs in my free times of holiday.