First week

Made it to Zanzibar! Stephanie, Tyler and I said goodbye to Michael, Nicole and Melissa as they headed off to Morogoro and we went to Zanzibar. The ferry ride was 2 hours, and the coastline was gorgeous to look at under the setting sun. I fell asleep on the ferry, and woke up just as we entered Stone Town harbour. There were many kids on the beach playing football and doing flips off a pile of sand. Kaiza, Micah, and Shaib, the YCI staff who facilitates and assists us helped us get through immigration, gave us a ride to our new home. The house itself is very big and upscale for Africa, it's actually quite the opposite of what I expected to be living in. The staff said that originally we were scheduled to live in a smaller and less furnished house, but they cancelled at the last minute due to a family matters, so now all three of us are here. The family is absolutely wonderful, they are the nicest people I've ever met. There are 10 of them in this house, and Mama looks after us as if we were her own children. Each day she makes us breakfast and teaches us ne words in Kiswahili. Her youngest son, Ali, is obsessed with us mzungus, or whities, and he trails us wherever we go when we are in the house. Ali is also teaching us Kiswahili, and so far I've learned more of the language in 3 days than I ever learned of French in the last 8 years at school. Each night we go upstairs with him and as he teaches us Kiswahili or play UNO with him (which he and his brother Yehea absolutely live) we watch a movie on their TV, last night was Mortal Kombat.

The YCI staff is making us acquainted with our new surroundings, and we have so far been to their head office, 2 youth centers we will be working with, and Stone Town. So far we have been given orientations about what our projects will be, and tips and scheduling advice. I teach a computer course, and HIV/AIDS Awareness through Arts class, 2 english classes, take part in a secondary school english club, and help organize shows for spreading HIV/AIDS awareness. Yesterday we had a meeting at the UMATI Youth Centre with Kaiza and a few other locals on the Arts program, and there is much to do to get prepared for this event on Tuesday. It is very important that when we teach, our information on HIV/AIDS is clearly understood, since there is only 2 hours to give a ton of materiel to youth who know nothing about the disease. Many believe you can get it simply by eating a meal that an infected person has cooked, others have no idea what the disease is, or believe that it doesn't exist. Also, the topic of condom use is very iffy here since the society is Muslim, and they do not believe that protection should be used. Apparently a political figure brought up the issue a few months ago in a public speech and was later assaulted in his home because of doing so.

The island of Zanzibar is much poorer than the mainland of Tanzania, and many people get by on subsistence living. Buildings are in terrible condition on the outside, and on the inside it is usually not much better. Of course, there are some districts that are richer than others, such as Stone Town, but everywhere there is garbage littering the streets, sidewalks, and fields. Even so, the island is extremely beautiful and I am loving every second of my stay here.

In order to get around the island, the main method of transportation is daladala, which is like a 12 seater van that you pile in as many people as can fit. The cost to go anywhere on the island on one of these is only 250 shilingi, which is basically 25 cents. Tyler, Stephanie and I take these everywhere we go since they are numerous and follow the same routes every day.

Yesterday we went to Stone Town for the first time. Kaiza led us through the maze of narrow streets that have 3, 4 and sometimes 5 story buildings towering above us. The whole time the 3 of us had no idea where we were, but she seemed to know every twist and turn. Apparently Kaiza is an artist, and she showed us her art gallery. All of the paintings were very good, and we we intent on each purchasing one until we found out the price was $250 USD. Hopefully there will be more art.

The food here is delicious, and by going to lunch and seafood markets at night I have so far had ugali (which is a paste that simply fills your stomach, but is not very nutritious), rice with coconut milk, mussels, shrimp, octopus (my favourite) and sugar cane juice. Each morning at ur house we get papaya and fresh oranges, as well as bread and starches. Their daughter, Naila, makes some of the best tea I have ever tasted and we are all searching for the herbs she uses so we can recreate it when we return home.

Today is the first day that the three of us have to ourselves. We plan on getting lost in Stone Town, finding our way out, eating lunch at a local restaurant, then taking Ali and Yehea to the beach. Tomorrow we also have off, but I think it will be spent more working on our projects then on enjoying ourselves.

Miss everyone at home and thinking about you guys! Also sorry about the terrible picture above I tried to upload it but it didn't work for some reason...I'll post them on facebook instead.

Also if you wish to call me, my number is 255787074691, however it is quite expensive plus I'm busy a lot of the time so only call me once a week if you decide to.