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Jambiani, Zanzibar, Tanzania 22:14

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liz, 7 Oct 2009 14:50 hours
Jambiani, Zanzibar, Tanzania

The final, final message.

I have just returned from a holiday in Plymouth. I had forgotten that I would be coming back to the hot season and arriving in Jambiani was quite a shock. It is impossible to be inside without a fan whirring away, even at night. The neighbours keep telling me that it is hotter than usual and they are certainly not venturing out in the midday sun.

I managed the journey from England in 2 days, arriving at Dar at 7.00, catching the 10.00 ferry and then the 1.00 bus to Jambiani. It takes longer to get by bus from Dar to Mwanza than it did to get from Plymouth to Jambiani. I arrived home to find that I had hardly any water and that everything was sticky with sand. I also discovered that I had no food and that the local shops were closed. There were only a few tomatoes and bananas at a small stall, so I had to go to town the next morning to get some food.

I went to town without breakfast and without any money at all apart from my fare in, as I’d also run out of money. Sometimes the cash machines don’t work and so I spent my time on the bus planning what to do if the machines weren’t working (panic basically) but they did and I was able to get plenty of money and then get some breakfast. I’d caught the 7.20 bus in and the 11.00 bus back as I had nothing else to do apart from buying some fruit and veg. About 6 hours travelling and less than 1 hour shopping. I am used to the daladala being crowded but it was exceptional. There were 60 of us on a bus officially seating 24. The aisle was jammed with little children all returning to Jambiani after the Eid festivities in town. There were little elbows and knees everywhere, as well as our luggage. The journey took nearly 3 hours and so by the time I got home, I needed a good rest. On Sunday I caught a morning bus from town and I presumed it would be not quite so crowded. I was wrong. I travelled with an entire local football team and their supporters as well as the usual passengers. Sometimes tropical island living is not quite the gentle paradise that people imagine but then it’s never boring either.

School closed 4 weeks ago for Ramadan. It will open Monday for one week and then close again for 2 weeks because of Form 4 National Exams, the equivalents of GCSEs. We are to produce a play with Form 3 students that has to be ready by the beginning of November as we are presenting it at a seminar for local youth leaders. We have to read the text book, write the script and get it ready for performance. Slight problem.

Even with school closed, I am busy. I am teaching a set of seminars at the local teachers centres during October, working with the students on the play, teaching my community English group, doing some computer training at the village health centre and making even more soap. I love making soap. It is so satisfying. The method here is really easy -2 parts coconut oil, one part water and one part caustic soda. Stir with the nearest available bit of wood and voila! I am working with the students and we are experimenting with colour at the moment. My favourite comes from the blue powder that goes in with the sheets to make them white. It makes the soap a rich blue and if we then add clove oil, the soap goes sage green. I wanted to get palm oil to improve the soap and I presumed that we must have palm trees here and so I went off on safari, into the darkest depths of Stone Town to find the oil. People kept telling me to go to the chemists but the people in the chemists shops simply looked blank. It turned out that I needed to go to the shops selling “local” medicine. The “local” medicine shops sell all manner of lotions and potions, even strange dried things that I am a bit wary of investigating too closely. In the first shop I couldn’t find the owner until he popped up from behind the counter where he had been down on the floor, giving a customer a massage. The palm oil was far too expensive but he had all manner of little bottles of perfumed oils that might be useful. I have to go back with some empty bottles and my dictionary.

The other day, I decided to buy some fish for a few street cats that I see regularly. On the way I spotted another tattered little cat and thought it might like a little fish. When I got to it, its eyes were out of its head and the fish was definitely a bit late. I didn’t stay to watch the poor thing’s final throes. Stone Town is full of cats, from starving, mangy animals that I’d rather not get too close to, to great fat fluffy lumps that have adopted a local food stall. Forodhani gardens are a big tourist attraction (set between the Old Fort and the sea) and we sometimes go to eat there. Every night dozens of food stalls set up, the chefs all in their “whites”, hats and all, and the choice of food is amazing, with more varieties of sea food than I ever imagined. And every night the place is jammed with cats.

I am finishing in Jambiani in December and that will be very sad. I love living in the village and I will be leaving many friends behind. The neighbours are already eyeing up my possessions and I shall need to have the judgement of Solomon to parcel out all my plates and bedding and assorted clutter without offending anyone. One friend is desperate for my food blender which seems a bit strange as she has no electricity in her house. Sadly even old shoes with the soles falling off and chipped plates have a market here. I have long since learnt that even those things that I am embarrassed to offer, will find an owner if I leave them on the garden wall.

I am still negotiating about what I shall do when I leave Jambiani but I am hoping to stay in Tanzania.

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