We arrived home, better for a 30 hour stop-over in London to break the long trip into two parts.
We left the hotel for lunch in a pub.
Always good to get home - and good to see a little snow on the Olympics this morning.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Posted with Blogsy
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Leaving Africa
We loved the Indian Ocean in front of our lodge and some of the creatures with whom we shared the grounds. The elephant shrew was a favorite.
Sitting on the bench and watching beach activity was great fun. We had seen women throughout our travels carrying amazing loads on their heads; below one of the housekeepers shows how common a form of transport it is.
Documenting Chris' toe-dipping in the Indian Ocean.
A villager in the traditional dhow above, as we watched our last African sunset for this trip.
A picture of the remaining group, after having toasted our great adventure and Cindy S. in absentia who had left the day before for her home and job in London. Below, Cindy W. with Omar, our waiter for many of our meals.
When we went to the airport Wednesday afternoon there was a much stronger military presence at its entrance than on Monday when we had dropped off Cindy S. On Monday, we drove right in; today there was a wait as cars were searched and a mirror on a long pole inspected the underside of all vehicles. We had heard earlier in the day that the Zanzibar results had been announced with a victory by the opposition party. Shortly later we heard that the ruling party was "annulling" the election and calling for new elections in the near future.
We arrived in Nairobi after a 90 minute flight, where we all caught different planes out - Chris to Paris, Cindy and Maureen to Amsterdam, and we headed to London for an overnight before returning home. We, and Cindy S who had departed earlier, left with wonderful memories of amazing sights, sounds, and experiences of people, places, and most of all the animals and landscape of the "bush". We had all remarked on what an amazing journey it was and how fortunate we are to have had this opportunity.
Spice Farm and Stone Town
On Monday, it was decided that we could head north for a spice plantation tour and a visit to Stone Town. Juma, a driver from Kizimkazi, picked us up and we drove about 90 minutes to a spice farm where we met our guide for the day, Abou. (Note that names are spelled phonetically.)
We are often reminded that we are traveling in a country where labor costs are low. At the spice farm, we had the services of a driver, a very knowledgeable guide, and a farm guide who assisted (above, with the red dot on his forehead following a demonstration of the fruit of the lipstick tree).
We saw and learned about many spices (pepper, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger, lemongrass, cloves, cinnamon, coriander) and fruit grown on the island.
And ended the tour with a musical performance - a young man with a great voice who sang as he climbed high into a coconut tree, and a tasting of various fruits; two more people 'supported' by the tourists visiting the farm.
The farm 'guide' presented each of us with crowns and rings he had made from coconut palms as we walked around learning about the plants.
F
We then headed to Stone Town, the oldest part of Zanzibar town and a major tourist attraction on the island. Stone Town is a city of prominent historical and artistic importance in East Africa. Its architecture, mostly dating back to the 19th century, reflects the diverse influences underlying the Swahili culture, with the East African culture being preeminent, there is a unique mixture of Arab, Persian, Indian and European elements. For this reason, the town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
We started at the site of the last open slave market, where we sat in the Anglican Church built on the site and listened as Abou gave us a history of the slave trade in Zanzibar. The wooden cross over his right shoulder was made from the tree under which David Livingstone died - he is noted here as one of the European anti-slavery leaders of the mid-1800's.
In front of the altar is a stone rectangle - the middle circle marking the place where the tree had stood where the market took place, the red in the stone symbolizing the blood shed by many of the slaves who perished in the inhuman conditions in which African people were captured, marched hundreds of miles, and imprisoned while awaiting sale.
The Slave Memorial (above) and the underground compartment where people were kept before being sold (below).
The heart of Stone Town mostly consists of a maze of narrow alleys lined by houses, shops, bazaars and mosques. Since most streets are too narrow for cars, the town is usually crowded with bicycles and motorbikes. On Monday the streets were eerily quiet and almost all businesses and markets were closed due to concern about possible unrest associated with election results.
The one place we saw a number of men sitting and talking was Jaws Corner, where people generally gather to discuss community affairs. We were ushered through by our guide who tried to point out historic areas but was focused on getting us back to our driver.
We met our driver just up the block from one of the houses where Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara), lead singer of Queen ("We will Rock You, We are the Champions", etc..), lived as a young child. We dropped one of our group at the airport and returned to the lodge safely. As we were eating a late lunch we got a call from Audley, the company we used to arrange our trip, informing us of isolated incidences of civil unrest in Stone Town and assuring us they were monitoring the situation. They were surprised to hear that we had in fact been in Stone Town a few hours earlier. We asked lodge staff for updates during our stay and heard reports of police and military activity preventing any gatherings and the use of tear gas to break up crowds.
Zanzibar
Some background information for those interested - others skip to the photos.
Abbreviated history: It is assumed that the first inhabitants were fishermen who crossed from the African mainland during the first millennium BC. The monsoons that blow across the Indian Ocean allowed contact between Persia, Arabia, India, and the coast of east Africa (including the islands of Zanzibar) for over 2000 years. They sailed south on the northeast monsoon between November and February, carrying beads, cloth, and Chinese porcelain; then, between March and September when the winds changed direction, they returned north with tortoiseshell, ebony, ivory, and timber. The Arab traders called the East African coast 'Zinj el Barr' meaning 'land of the black people', from where the modern name Zanzibar is derived; alternatively the Arabs may also have derived the name from Zayn za'l barr, meaning 'Fair is this land'. Zanzibar remained the name of the whole coast, including the islands of Unguja and Pemba (which together make up the present-day state of Zanzibar), until the late 15th century.
The first European arrivals were Portuguese looking for a trade route to India, establishing a trading post in Zanzibar at the end of the 15th century. At the end of the 17th century the Portuguese were ousted by the Omani Arabs, and it was during this time that Zanzibar became a major slaving center. One of Oman's chief exports was dates, and the expansion of date plantations resulted in the import of African slaves since the rules of Islam forbade the enslavement of Muslims. It is estimated that there were about 5000 African slaves in Oman at the beginning of the 18th century, with about 500 new slaves arriving each year. Once the slave trade was abolished within the British Empire in 1807, followed shortly thereafter by laws against slave trading in the U.S. (1808), France and Germany, slaves were used in Zanzibar to work on newly established clove plantations.
The Omani sultan moved his court here in 1840 and the island became an Arab state and an important center of trade and politics in the region. Many European explorers, including Livingstone and Stanley, began their expeditions here during the second half of the 19th century. Zanzibar was a British protectorate from 1890 until 1963, when the state gained independence. In 1964, the sultan and the government were overthrown in a revolution; in that same year, Zanzibar and the newly independent country of Tanganyika combined to form the United Republic of Tanzania.
Sunday was Election Day so we were advised to stay around the lodge. The poster above is the opposition party's presidential candidate, and as we have traveled across Tanzania the past two weeks we have heard various political viewpoints - some advocating for change, others supportive of the ruling party, and some who thought it really wouldn't change much for people's day to day lives. There is concern that there will be some unrest so we are following the cautious advice of the lodge's manager and sticking close by.
Several of us went on a snorkeling tour, going out on a small boat in the bay to see beautiful coral and other sea life. It has been really fun to watch the activity at low tide as villagers forage for shellfish, octopus, and other sea creatures that are an important part of the diet here.
The lodge is next to the village of Kizimkazi and we went on a three hour walking tour in the afternoon. It was led by Rashid who works at the lodge, and was a unique opportunity to learn about life in a small village on Zanzibar.
A beautiful waterfront in the village - beautiful white sand beaches, boats in the water and nets getting readied for fishing.
Rashid standing in front of a coral wall as he explained building techniques used in Kizimkazi.
Rashid asked that we only take pictures of adults with their permission, but let us know that the village kids loved to have their pictures taken.
Several women sitting outside on a concrete bench (typically part of houses here) asked us to take the little boy's picture above.
We then engaged with the women who graciously allowed us to photograph them.
Colorful clothing is the norm here. The woman below came out of the house as she heard our exchange, took several minutes to arrange her scarf as she posed for us.
The kids really did love to be photographed and then crowded around to see the result, usually resulting in much laugh.
Rashid has fathered children with 3 wives (we didn't ask to determine whether concurrently or consecutively), ranging in age from his youngest above to his eldest in his late 40's. Rashid's family compound included his house and at least eight others for his siblings and other family members.
We visited with his family in his house. Above, on the left is a nephew who asked us many questions with Rashid's encouragement (an opportunity to practice his English, we presumed) posing with one of his sons.
We went through a neighborhood where there was a large play area with many kids playing, under the watchful eyes of women lounging on the concrete benches, getting some relief from the heat.
Our last stop was a demonstration of how rope is made from coconut shells - first put in the ocean for a long time, with the thin strands then taken from the shells and twisted into rope.
The walk through the village with Rashid was very informative and we all felt privileged to have had the opportunity to spend three hours with him learning about the life of the villagers. It was also sobering to realize that this is a relatively prosperous village on Zanzibar with its access to the ocean.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)