Zanzibar

Well,
I am no longer at St Jude's (only away for a week), I am in Zanzibar for a week with 7 other girls from St Jude's and it's so nice to have electricity and water! I feel like I have been away from a computer for weeks! The school has rainwater tanks as a backup for when we lose our water supply, but after just one day and a half they were emptied! We had to buy water and carry it in on mkokotenis (giant wheelbarrow things). When I say we, I mean the gardeners and workers around the school, although I helped because I'm learning to drive a mkokoteni... it requires great skills and balancing techniques... oh yes and muscles!
You can only imagine how much water we needed to cook rice and beans for over 800 plus have enough drinking water that many as well! The worst part of it was the smell that developed after a very short time in the toilets. There was no water to flush away over 800 people using them and it was disgusting! The whole school seemed to smell like sewerage for 3 days!!! So much I take for granted! Back home, growing up, if we had no water we usually had warning, then we also had rainwater tanks to back us up, we were never left high and dry so to speak!
We left Arusha early Saturday morning for a 10 hour bus ride to Dar Es Salaam, not my favourite place here at all but we stayed one night and left the next morning on the ferry (another 4 hours) to Zanzibar. We were all tired, grumpy and hungry and 3 of us were sick too, so it didn't really feel like we were on holidays at all.
We woke today to heavy rain (though it's still about 30 degrees) and wandered around town getting thoroughly soaked. About 4 of the girls really like drinking too much quite often and 6 of them smoke all day long, leaving 2 of us stinking of smoke... disgusting!!! I really hate cigarettes!!!
We are planning to go to the less touristy parts of the island tomorrow but for now we are happy checking out the night markets and avoiding the many men inviting us to their shop with 'special prices'.
We went to a museum this morning and it was pretty cool, it had heaps of history of the Muslim culture and it's influence here... almost everyone in Zanzibar is Muslim so there are a lot of veils! When you go to a local beach there are only men there, no women on the sand or in the water... I don't know why because the men swim in their clothes anyway so I'm sure the women could too! The men wear long shirts down to their ankles so the only hassle for the women would be the veils I guess... I know that I sure would not want to swim with cloth on my head in case I drowned myself.
2 weeks ago a whole bus load of us went to Arusha National Park to see the wildlife and I saw a hippo and it's baby! We saw colobus monkeys, baboons, warthogs, giraffe, all kinds of antelope/deer things, zebra, wild dogs, flamingoes, buffalo, monkeys and a weird looking bird. It was fun but another long drive. I'm considering going to the Serengeti but the national park fees have just gone up to deter tourists (they are going up again next year) to $80US per day so I'm not sure about that.
I've been on 2 homestays over the last 2 weeks, one was with a girl called Magreth (pronounced liek Margaret) whom I barely knew but her best friend and neighbour, Beatrice had invited Janet (my old roommate) to her house so she wanted me at the same time. Another neighbour was a little boy called Damson in the same class (all around 10 years old) and he was delightful and has a slight stutter, he helped carry my things up the mountain and we went to visit all 3 houses. It was a lovely afternoon and evening. I have photos of them and I will upload them soon.
The second homestay was with a girl in class 5, Miriam who has been nagging me since I started to come and stay at her house... she nags everyone and even if you've been there she nags to return over and over again! Some people at the school think it's because of the gifts. Whenever you visit the home of a child you should take gifts, usually of rice, sugar, beans, oil and basic food stuffs because they are so poor. So, Miriam lives with her aunt and uncle, who aren't as poor as most (they have a house and electricity and a TV etc, but are quite greedy. Miriam has had a few telling's off about hassling too many people to visit. I thought I'd end her nagging if I went once and got it over with... I was wrong!
I got their and gave my gifts and was treated quite well, but then the aunt asked when I was coming again, she said it would be convenient for her if I came the following 2 nights. I said that I couldn't because of all the meetings in the last week of school, which was true. So then she said to come on Saturday so she could take me to church the next day. I said I was leaving for Zanzibar on Saturday and wouldn't be back for at least a week. She then said,
"So, what gift will you bring us from Zanzibar?"
By this stage I was feeling hassled and just shrugged and tried to change the subject. She asked the same questions at least 6 more times over the evening and next morning. She took me to church anyway to listen to choir practice. Her choir is producing a CD of gospel music and it was quite beautiful to listen to, but there was no power, so no light and the practise was from 7pm til 9pm... in the pitch dark until a single candle was lit for about 40 people. Then the strict choirmaster man started hitting a young woman with a stick because she wasn't singing the right thing or something. I was a bit confused and quite disturbed by the seriousness of the singing.
I have another homestay booked in when school resumes ith the lovely boy, Damson. He has since declared his undying love for me and asked for my 'answer'!!! I wasn't really sure what answer he wanted but he is ten and in my class so I have told him he is an excellent student and a good friend! Never happened to me before!
About a year and a half ago I cut the palm of my hand on a glass while doing the dishes... several shards went into my hand and I just pulled them out immediately. About 2 months later I noticed a lump where I had cut myself and thought it was just internal scar tissue. A couple of later it was still there and when pressing down on that spot it hurt, so I thought that maybe there was still a piece of glass in my hand but I wasn't too worried. I pretty much forgot about it for about a year and then while I was in the USA I realised that it had moved inside my hand and was starting to hurt more often as I used that part of my hand more.
Since I've been in Africa it has moved more and now hurts daily, but only when it's pressed on, so I can't lean on my hand or grab things hard etc. I'm quite worried about it now (a little too late, I know) so I went to the Dr here and he said that no Dr in their right mind would go cutting open a hand looking for something that might not be there! I asked what I was suppoed to do and he just repeated himself. So now I'm worried... if anyone has any suggestions let me know.
My friend, Simon was the one who showed me where the Dr was and took my there and the poor guy had to put up with me 'carrying on' all the way there because I was scared. I thought that the Dr would just cut away and I didn't even know if they would use anaesthetic so by the time I got there I was a mess emotionally and had way to much adrenalin built up I was in tears... so then when the Dr did nothing, it was too much!
Simon took me for a drink afterwards (I really wanted one) and then some food and took me out to see Usa River and we sat in Rotterdam Garden for the afternoon. When we walked down to the river bank there were ants but we didn't see them... we got back up on the road and something bit me... in my pants! I found an ant. We walked on and again I was bitten, I found 2 more ants... then I realised I had heaps in my pants and started jumping up and down and squealing trying to get rid of them! Simon couldn't stop laughing so I started laughing and had to run to the bathroom to strip off and shake out my clothes. All afternoon though, I was paranoid that there were more and kept looking down my pants at the slightest inkling... which set Simon off laughing again, so it was quite a crazy day!