January 28, 2015

January 28, 2015 Started our last day in Stonetown with a good laugh....this morning at breakfast Gail decided to look for her camera in her purse. That may not sound all that funny to you but when I add the fact that she was looking through my purse it gets a little funnier. To move from funny to hilarious you need to know that she didn't clue in when nothing in the purse looked familiar so she started to take stuff out of my purse and pack it in her pack sack so it wasn't taking up space in "her" purse. It wasn't till she pulled out my wallet that a strange look dawned on her face and she noticed that it wasn't her purse at all. I retrieved my "stolen" items and we all agreed that it will be a long time till she lives this one down. btw...our purses are similar in colour on the outside but hers is green and mine is orange on the inside....are you laughing yet? we are!! LOL Still no wifi at Kholle House this morning so haven't been able to post from yesterday either so when we next have wifi you may have a small book to read. Off to Z Hotel in Nungwi this morning. Driver was once again Mohammed (the same guy who picked us up from the airport at arrival in Zanzibar). During our 1 1/2 drive to Nungwi we learned that: - 90% of Zanzibar is muslim, 8% christian, and 2% hindu - 50% unemployment - men are allowed to have up to 4 wives (if there is good reason and most reasons are good - LOL) - there are more women than men born in Zanzibar - 90% of police are corrupt (all the way to the top) - housing has shifted from mud and stick (although you still see the odd one of those) to brick and tin roof. typically (as is the same in mainland Tanzania) it takes up to 10 years to complete a house. no one has a mortgage as they build as they can afford to. - we passed a technical trade school en route and Mohammed explained that it takes either 1 yr or 2 yrs to become a plumber or electrician etc. they go to school 3 days/week and work in their trade the rest of the time. - women get 3 months paid leave (pay comes direct from employer) when they have a baby. - children wear uniforms for school. primary is blue and white and secondary is blue and green. all girls are wearing head coverings. - women wear veils by choice depending on how devout and whether they come from Arab families. when they are at home they wear kangas (traditional african wraps) and when out in public they wear the long dress (sometimes black, other times colourful) - Sunday evening is the day for families to go visit in a public square of market. Little girls are dressed in fancy dresses and everyone is dressed up. two types of hospital care here. one is gov't funded and the other is private. both provide quality care but the belief is that the private is superior. there are 51 varieties of mango! there are also numerous variety of bananas but we don't know the number - oops! Tanganika used to be the name of mainland and at that time Zanzibar was a separate country. In the 1960's they combined to become Tanzania. Z Hotel is really lovely and pretty fancy! We have two tv's in our room (and we haven't seen a tv in so long that we hardly knew what they were when we saw them. They're hanging at the end of each of our four post mosquito netted beds! We won't be turning them on though as this place begs you to do anything but watch TV! It is so relaxing and it feels so fancy and I'm feeling so spoiled. In fact tonight as I was watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean while listening to a combination of waves on the shoreline and IZ singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World (one of my favourite songs!!) I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't all a dream. Hard to believe that it's been almost exactly two years since I left the College. So much has happened in that short time! School finished, business up and running, second Mexican Retreat for clients just around the corner, targets achieved as per business plan, book in hands of publisher/editors and scheduled for launch in November, dream to combine work and travel achieved, trip of a lifetime to Africa including achieving my childhood dream of someday visiting the land of Zanzibar (the most exotic name I'd ever heard as a young child of 5 or 6 when the dream was born), experience flight in a hot air balloon, and extended travel throughout the Yucatan scheduled to begin in less than a month. Yep.....pinch pinch pinch! Enough about me though....Gail is a much better topic. In fact we've begun to notice that whatever it is that causes Gail's confusion (and ability to lose things) is contagious. First Darlene caught it this afternoon when she couldn't find her water (which was two inches from her right foot beside her deck chair. Then Lynda caught it when she couldn't remember whether or not she had taken her malaria meds (just seconds earlier). I'm a little worried cuz from the way things have been going I could be next! But just a minute....if I'm feeling worried maybe I've already caught it as that is another of the symptoms of the Gail disease!! LOL!! Good thing Gail is such a great sport and loves to laugh. Her laugh is infectious and so we're all laughing much of the time. The ocean here is azure in colour, the beach is sugar fine white sand, and the temperature is perfect. During the day it is pretty warm and humid but by the time the sun goes down it is a balmy 25'ish and there is a beautiful breeze and well.....it kind of looks like paradise. We're all being careful to stay out of the sun as when you're only 6 degrees away from the Equator you're pretty much guaranteed to burn in no time at all! Sunscreen and umbrellas are our friends! Dinner on a rooftop restaurant tonight. Tomorrow is another day.....till then.....polay polay and hakunamatata (slowly slowly and it's all good), Darlorlynga