Zanzibar!!

Indian Ocean in the morning

    Early morning, and I mean early, we left for Zanzibar even more tired than we thought possible. The boarding process was fast and before we knew it we were crossing the Indian Ocean. The sun raising was an absolutely beautiful scene. With the Dao boats sailing in view, it was reminiscent of something I would see in an anime (please excuse the geek out). 

View of Zanzibar from our hotel balcony. Photo; courtesy of Ali Anger.

Zanzibar as our ferry docked

The two hour boat ride took its time and I as well as many of the group dozed off mid trip. As we arrived we saw a few of the fifty isles that make up Zanzibar just before Unguja came into view. The boat docked and after a short time of waiting for our information to be processed we waltzed into Stone town a combination of Old and new (the city is literally split into an old and new district). Our hotel was seconds away from the dock and located in the old potion of Stone town. We stayed at a three star hotel, which was very accommodating as well as luxurious, called Zanzibar Grand Palace. After settling to our gorgeous rooms we were sent away by our professors to tour the city while that caught up on some rest.  The quaint design of our side of town was absolutely entrapping, I was in love. While touring the city we saw many of the famous doors of Stone town, said to directly reflect the owner’s wealth and position during Arabic control. The tour also took us through the local markets, a few historic areas, and the best place for to watch the sunset in Zanzibar: Africa House Hotel.

The rest of the day was spent in the museums of Zanzibar we learned of the Arabic and Muslim influence and rule. One particular museum “The house of Wonder” I enjoyed the most it featured economy, biology, and an extensive history selection. The house of wonder this particular day housed an extra wonder. It was while touring the museum I met the internationally established Zanzibarian designer Farouque Abdela known for his disputed work with Princess Diana, as well as his work with Maya Angelou, the first lady of Tanzania and many Actors and actresses. We met and made a plan to meet at a later date for an interview, putting the close on a productive and quite auspicious day.

At the end of the tour and the day we were exhausted the few hours we had of down time were literally spent “down” we needed to catch up on some rest. We enjoyed dinner that night on the rooftop of our hotel. There we had an amazing view of the town to match the amazing cuisine served.

Wednesday the group and I traveled to the spice tour. The farm growing the spices had an extremely large variety of plants from spices and perfumes to fruits. We were shown many varieties and were given explanations of uses and side effects of many plants. At the end of the tour the farmers allowed us to taste many of the indigenous fruits growing in the farm. My particular favorite was the African Grape fruit. However, my pleasure was ruined by the infamous Durian Fruit A.K.A the stink fruit. The smell was absolutely abysmal yet everyone I had talked to about it told me it tasted heavenly…it was a trap. After tasting the fruit I was nauseous for the next two days. Tasting of the durian fruit concluded the tour, especially for me and we returned to Stone town after purchasing spices. And this was only the morning.

Variety of spices for sale after our spice tour. Courtesy of Ali Anger

Snorkling!!! Courtesy of Ali A.

Our afternoon was spent snorkeling in the Indian Ocean. It was my first time and I was very excited for the experience. After taking a ferry out to the reef we jumped in without hesitation. Unfortunately due to my lack of experience the first fifteen minutes I spent drowning… drowning really well. But after adjusting to the gear, seeing the reef and fish was quite nice.

Dinner during Zanzibar black out Courtesy of Ali Anger :)

That evening we were preparing to walk the town in search of a nice restaurant when the power turned went out. The streets were pitch black, after some speculation, we opted for adventure. Chris and I gathered some flashlights and we made our way down the street until coming upon a small park with many vendors hosting fresh caught seafood such as lobster, muscles, and fish. The variety was ridiculous we took our time reviewing the food and took to bartering with the locals for dinner. Afterwards we enjoyed drinks with a local in the labyrinth alley streets of Zanzibar.

Our third and final day in Zanzibar we went to the beach. I figure I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves for this period of the trip.

Bruce, Brooke, and I building our sand castle

After a long day at the beach we returned home to shower and prepare for dinner. Chris and I had a dinner date with his mother, aunt, and some family friends, while the rest of the group enjoyed dinner back at the hotel. This evening we went out to commemorate the end of our trip to Zanzibar…We won’t discuss the matters of this particular night…

The following morning was…difficult. Chris and I had to get up early with the rest of the group to switch our Ferry tickets to a later time. We both had made plans for the morning. I had my interview with Farouque and Chris had plans with his aunt and mother.

After my interview with Farouque Abdela I met with Chris, his mother and Aunt for some lunch. They then walked us to the harbor and we left Zanzibar…But after experiencing Zanzibar I will most definitely return.

Dar es Salaam

      Hello, once again, and welcome back. The group and I have recently returned from our trip to the capital of Tanzania: Dar es Salaam and the beautiful archipelago Unguja or more commonly known as Zanzibar. After returning to Arusha, the group was exhausted from one of the most exciting and busiest weeks during our stay in Tanzania. I hope you enjoy the pics and chronicle

Dar es Salaam

A view from the window outside Chris and my room

                Our trip to the coast included three days in Dar es Salaam and three days in Zanzibar. We left for Dar the 9^th of June, a Saturday, early morning. Our ten hour road trip brought us to a bustling city in the midst of a lot of development projects and construction. Traffic was slow but we arrived at our hotel with out too much delay around 7 p.m. After settling to our new hot and humid quarters we met in the hotel's restaurant to eat and relax. Chris informed the group that his mother, Mrs. Askew, was in town and had invited us to a concert by The Kilimanjaro Band who are family friends of Mrs. Askew.  Majority of the group quickly agreed, though we were all a tad tired (a feeling that would remain for the rest of our trip). We ate dinner, had intense negotiations with taxi drivers, then piled into the taxis to make our escape for the evening.

The Kilimanjaro Band

 We arrived at the concert early, around 10:30 which gave those who didn’t know the exceptional Mrs. Askew some time to become acquainted with her. We (not tot be cheesy) we danced the night away with Mrs. Askew.

    Our first day was spent in Bagamoyo, there we visited the Kaole ruins;  13^th century ruins in Dar. Mosques as well as tombs reflect the Islamic influence along the east coast. The guide spoke of the history of Zanzibar and of its sultans. Another situation where my kindergarden swahili skills hindered my understanding :/
Also by the Kaole ruins we saw a 500 year old Baobab tree:

The rest of our first day was spent at a beach side resort; a chance to catch our breath. With such little time and so much to do the group and I had been running around from the crack of dawn until two in the morning too often! We made sure to take a second to act like the graduate and undergraduate students we were:

    Monday was spent touring and learning about the history of Dar; we visited the national museum there. The renovations were beautiful and I really enjoyed the history section on Nyerere. The museum also included a massive biology and an anthropology section. After sometime in the museum we headed towards the U of Dar. I woke up on the bus to both of my legs still sleeping, I wasn't initially excited to wake them either. The group and I rose from our seats like zombies still trying to catch our breath, looking forward to a tour the campus which was beautiful. However, it didn’t take us long to make our way through and around campus so some of us took the time to tour Dar a bit more. The roads were pretty bad and traffic was a high stakes game of Frogger. The tall buildings that  decorated the skyline were either under conctruction or luxurious, Dar was quite the place to visit to say the very least.

    We concluded our stay in Dar with Ethiopian cuisine that night in order to celebrate Jesse's, a graduate from our group, birthday which was really fun, delicious, annnnnd of course interesting; we used no plates or utensils. The food was organized in piles on a covered table. We used thin rolls of a bread like wrap called “Njira” it was used to grab the food; eating the njira with a portion from the pile. I also tried Ethiopian coffee while after the meal which was really rich.

Welcome back, it’s been some time since my last post. The MSU-GPA group has been busy as ever. Up until Friday, between our exams and studies Chris and I’ve attended a Tanzanian wedding. More recently we’ve recently arrived in the ever busy, developing  city of Dar es Salaam and have spent the a day checking out 13^th century  ruins on the coast, touring the city, and relaxing poolside  enjoying the view of the Indian ocean.

Sadly to say I have no photos of the wedding. However many of the ceremonies and customs were similar to those back home. It was this experience that allured me to the true meaning of “African Time” the infamous term two of my friends from Nigeria introduced me to years earlier, but I never understood exactly what they meant until last Saturday when Chris and I went to celebrate Holy Matrimony Tanzanian style!

We were invited to a family friend of Chris’s who informed me and him that he arranged us to be picked up around two to arrive at the ceremony which would start around 3p.m. We met our escort  for the wedding around 2:30 and arrived on scene roughly 3:00 p.m.  as planned. The set up was in the midst of the Village Chris’s Family friend grew up in. The wedding took place in a structure which included cinder block walls with window squares and a large tarp covering the area over head. The structure was packed an hour after we arrived and the ceremony didn’t begin for another forty-five minutes after that. Though uncomfortably squeezed in our seats Chris and I tried to decipher the preacher and Co.’s words with little to no avail. We sat for the next hour making out the few verbs we knew and listening to the brass band playing outside the church.

Once the ceremony finally began; first thing first the bride and groom signed the marriage papers then afterwards approached the alter. Despite the past three weeks of exposure to Swahili this next stage of the wedding was not understood by me or my friend. After an another hour or so of deciphering  the same 20 verbs, the bride and groom said their I do’s and the entire church met in the courtyard to greet, congratulate and give gifts to the newly-weds. I was pretty disappointed leaving the wedding. I was happy to experience it but expecting a bit more to the eye. It was earlier this day our host mother explained to us: “the Tanzanian receptions ARE the wedding”. Despite this I would not understand until we finally arrived.

After photographs with the newly-wed’s family and friends at a nearby hotel around 7:00 we left for the reception. Arriving by 8:00 with each step I understood the meaning behind Mama Mganga’s words. The reception took place in a beautifully decorated large tent with smaller adjacent tents containing small refreshments. Unfortunately for me and Chris African time was in play here too; we enjoyed the small snack still looking forward to dinner and awaited the arrival of the bride and groom. Quite some time later they arrived and the reception was the jump off everyone had told us it was going to be. The reception was initiated by the arrival of the bride and groom; announced by an M.C who also introduced the Newly-weds family. Dancing immediately followed which included anyone willing. I pulled my friend up and we learned the Tanzanian version of the Hustle.

Multiple customs and traditions followed the beginning of the reception such as the cutting of the ceremonial slaughtered goats (and Cake.) The reception truly was the wedding.

                Our next excursion took us to a family of the Chaga Tribe. We left campus and after a short and bumpy trip to the base area of Mt. Kilimanjaro we arrived on Chaga land. We were then introduced to two chaga farmers who would serve as our guides as we toured a few valleys and waterfalls. After meeting our guides we departed for a close by river to see our first waterfall. Our guides escorted us to the bottom of the small valley to a river that flowed from Kilimanjaro to a small but scenic waterfall   Check it out:

Afterwards we ascended the valley following a small path to a narrow ledge which led us to a waist high cave the Chaga themselves carved out which I understood to be possibly centuries ago. In this small cave our guide gave a brief presentation on the history of the Chaga people in Swahili. I wasn’t able to make out as much as I would’ve liked to, But Here is what I made out:

About  200 years ago at the base of mount Kilimanjaro the Maasai came to take the cattle of the Chaga. The Maasai traditionally believe all cattle was given to them by God and is rightfully theirs; that all people were given a role in life and theirs was to heard and protect cattle. Hence the cattle raids, and so the Chaga dug caves to protect their women, children and animals while men and young men fought the Maasai. Though we know that the Chaga did dig these caves we have yet to figure out how; with what tools they did so.



Mwalimu(teacher) Bwana Kisanji

 We sat in the small cave, cramped, occasionally adjusting ourselves until the presentation came to a close. As we finished climbing the remainder of the small valley we looked towards our next destination: lunch.

 Our ride took us even closer to the base of Kilimanjaro to a Chaga farm where we would eat lunch, learn how to process coffee, harvest honey and bananas, as well as taste the naturally grown coffee of the Chaga. The farm seemed small but the beautiful household combined with the use of huts made from mud, thatch, and dried banana leaves for the roof represented a combination of tradition and new age, a combination that would be present throughout our exposure to the Chaga.

After we finished we were brought around the back of the farm where we harvested ripe coffee beans we’d later pour into a grinder to separate the shell from the actual bean. After the beans were separated and dried they are ready to be roasted. The guides took us to the back of the farm to a hut where the roasting takes place. On an open fire a thick seemingly cast iron bowl was held over open fire. The Ivory colored beans were then poured in roasted, and stirred until they turned the dark savory color we’re all familiar with. We then crushed the beans and they were ready for our cups. It was after the course of about three cups of fresh brewed coffee the group was…blitzed to start the harvest of the banana trees.

To our dismay (and probably to the safety of the farm at this point) we were not given machetes and only watched as our guides showed us all how it’s done. After harvesting the bananas the remainder of the tree was fed to the cows. Here's a pics from that:

During the final section of our visit with the Chaga we were to travel down a much larger valley to a scenic river and small water fall. After ten minutes of walking a path that took us through steep declines and lush vegetation, and after three Disney songs we arrived at the base of the valley to rest and enjoy the sights, as I hope you will:

After our ascension back to the farm we were allowed to purchase coffee which I will be smuggling back to the U.S ($15 a brick-natural and high quality stuff you couldn’t get from Starbucks) we prepared for departure and returned to campus about 7p.m. for dinner and “Kazi nyumbani”…Homework.

Jk btw…I’m keeping the coffee.

Harvesting honey from stingerless bees

Bakin' Beans



dried beans