Zanzibar!

The ferry leaves at 7a.m so we had to leave the house quite early. Apparently because we are not ‘residents’ i.e. Tanzanians, the extremely rude ticket sellers decided we must pay 35$ per person, per ride, instead of 20$. So im trying to understand why –cause I was assuming, well we are all east Africans, that 35$ fee is usually reserved for.. well Europeans, Americans etc. He wasn’t trying to even budge. ‘If you don’t have the money, go, you are wasting my time. You Kenyans like arguing too much. You plan to go somewhere and you don’t know how it works?’

So I decide, ok, issue the tickets, there’s nothing I can do. It totals 210$ for a roundtrip (im really hating my cousins right now, lol). And the dude is like, no, show me the money first. I might write these tickets and here you don’t even have the money….” At this point im starting to dislike Tanzanians. This attitude is unnecessary.

Then we get to Zanzi, and us, being ignorant, forgetting that Zanzi is a self-governed island, of course did not come with our permits. So the immigration agent is like, “no way, no way. You aren’t getting in without either your passport or your pass, your identity card is not enough. Kenyans are not to be trusted (is this a recurrent theme?)” Im trying to explain that, clearly we’ve just gotten off the ferry from Dar, we had no idea we’d have to go through immigration again, we are only here for the day… he refused, claiming that some Kenyans had said the same thing a few weeks before, in fact, ‘look they even left their ID’s as goodwill that they are leaving the same day and they never came back. Hapana. Mtarudi.”. he only budged when we finally showed our return tickets, we had to leave our ID’s. At this point, im really, really disliking Tanzanians. I don’t mind protocol, but the whole attitude shift just because we are holding Kenyan identification papers is just unnecessary and uncalled for.

Despite the initial hitch I love love love Zanzibar and Zanzibaris. Even though because its such a tourism based economy every few steps there’s someone offering taxi ride, walking tour, etc.. Zanzibaris are soooooo friendly. We had a guide –cause I wanted to walk around, not drive. So first we end up at this (again) dingy place for breakfast. I think this was the first time I was a bit fearful that I’ll end up with diarrhoea, lol. I don’t know why, but I like hole-in-the-walls.

Walked around Old town, which has very very narrow streets, with many people on scooters, and bicycles, so while walking you are always dodging bikes, foot traffic, scooters etc. the houses all look old with worn out white, peeling paint- because of the humidity and sea salt from the Indian ocean. Women in buibuis despite the heat, kids playing outside, everything is so cramped together. For some reason everyone mistakes us for Ugandans (I guess we are, somewhat, I mean Acholis are also in Uganda, no? and where my grandmom comes from is right next to the Uganda-sudan border).

My favourite moment in Zanzibar was sitting on steps, drinking coffee with strangers and just talking about random ish. Some guy was telling me about life in Zanzi (personally I wanted to know how high rent is, because if im moving back to Africa next year….im thinking Zanzi would be heaven!), the Pemba-Zanzi-Tanzanian relations, etc. Before long we had a small crowd of people just shooting the shit, drinking coffee, I was eating mabuyus, my cuz some kashata (cant describe these). I must live in Zanzi at least once in my life, in fact im really contemplating next year after graduating- only question is can I get a job? I cant just bum around for life, which would be tempting.

We went to the old Slave market…atop of which they build an Anglican church(2nd pic). had another guide give us the history. Most of it I was surprised to still remember from history class (Seyyid Said, Tippu Tip, etc). they showed us the underground holding caves with a small space for light/air… etc. This was a bit of a blight/low moment.

What did we do afterwards? Went and saw the old Sultanate palace, walked by the beach, went to the fish market (dirty, smelly, noisy, lots of fish I cant name). Walked and walked and walked and walked. I love Zanzibar! I really must come back and spend a few nights on this island. Oh and I was giving everyone my cousin’s cell #, lol

Caught the 4p ferry back to Dar, got there about 6.30p. Dealt with two really shitty cab drivers. This one dude my cuz befriended cause he’s a Luo from Kenya (don’t know how they figured this out, I turned back and I see people holding hands and speaking Luo, lol). Anyway, he decides its dark, I think I should escort you guys cause the cab drivers will try and exploit you. So he gets us a cab, I have to find an atm cause we are planning to hit out to Nairobi the next morning and want to buy our bus tickets- the cab driver starts bitching, about the price we agreed on is too low, you must add more money (I mean wtf? You should have said this before we got IN the cab)

Then we get to Ubunge to get bus tx and he’s like, I have to leave you guys here- I cant go all the way to Mbezi beach, its getting late (its 8.00p.m), you have to pay me this amount…. At this point im just getting amazed about this shit. Dar express bus is full so we have to get another bus- that will probably take longer, and is not as… I don’t know I guess reliable. So my cousin starts giving me shit about this. (we cant go with this kind of bus, id rather wait another day- by the way, the reason we are leaving Tuesday morning is because she said she has to be at work on Wednesday- not because there’s anything im rushing back to- so im not quite understanding the attitude), it’ll take too long, no… blablabla. How much do tickets cost? Again, about 150$ so really I should be the one with the bad attitude cause I’ll be broke before mid summer.

And im just not understanding this, ‘im too good for this kind of bus’ attitude. Anyway. Its late, we are both cranky, our cab driver took off, this dude my cuz befriended just hit me off on some money (I needed to change Kenyan shillings for Tanzanian- and he gave me a really low exchange rate- so even him im kinda done with.). whatever, I hadn’t realized how much it would cost in tzed currency, I have no choice. So we get another cab, dude has to leave, I ask the cab driver if he can come pick us up the next morning to take us to the bus station (no, 6a.m is too early- im too amazed at this shit. Maybe if you pay me 20,000TZ shs- almost twice as much as it would normally cost).

Im so through with Tanzanians at this point. So we pass Tangi Mbovu (which we’d told him we are going to mbezi beach, the one for tangi mbovu- because there are two Mbezi’s and tangi mbovu is the marker/identifier. St. Mary’s, which is where my buddy lives is less than a mile from there. When turning into st. mary’s the cab driver catches an attitude. ‘No, you told me tangi mbovu, this is not it, you know how much petrol costs, you must add 2,000shs otherwise im not moving.’ And stops the car right there. At this point im really really disliking Tanzanians. Really. And im sooo pissed, there’s no way im giving this shitty attitude even a shilling. “Hapana! Wacha tushuke, atinikulipe? Kwani unafikiria tunatoa pesa kwa mti?). We basically walked the rest of the way. Ugh. Easy money will be people’s downfall. I’ve never had such problems before, over a few shillings at that. Ugh. Regardless, I intend to live in Zanzibar!