Fast Facts about life in Zanzibar

- the currency here is Tanzanian shilling and $1 is equal to 1300 shillings. It's pretty nice because I always feel like I have a lot of money because a 10,000 dollar bill looks like so much (when in reality its less than $10).

-Square blocks do not exist in Stonetown and all of the streets are very narrow and curvy. Most of the streets are not even big enough for a car to drive through and street signs do not exist. Even if you keep making left turns you would bot make a circle, but end up on the other side of town. Lets just say that with my directional skills I have already gotten lost many times because the town is like a maze! Right now I know how to get to the internet cafe, the SIT office, and my house which is pretty good for me! Oh and here pedestrians have no right at all. Motorbikes, bicycles, cars, trucks and vans all go REALLY REALLY fast and they never slow down even if they see someone crossing the street. They also drive on the left side of the road, so its taken me awhile to decide what side of the road I should stay on when a motorbikes is coming.

-Since the Zanzibar archipelago is also known as the spice islands, we have spice tea with every meal. Its really good and in my house we usually have ginger tea. A typical meal consists of rice, lots and lots of fried bread, fish, and fresh fruit (papaya, mango, bananas, and pineapple). We eat meals sitting on a mat on the floor and use our right hand to eat everything. And let me tell you, eating rice with your hand is an art that I have yet to master. My homestay mama even tried to teach me how to pick the rice up with my fingers, and ended up just laughing at me because it went everywhere :) There are also a lot of hot peppers in some of the foods. Let me just give you a word of advise. DO NOT mistake a hot pepper for a carrot. Some how I have managed to do that twice and both times I thought i was about to eat a Delicious carrot and as a result my mouth felt like it was on fire for 2 hours, haha.

-Zanzibar is not a very big island but there are lots of islands around it. It takes about 45 minutes to drive the width of Zanzibar and about 3 hours to drive the length from the longest points.

-Everyone here LOVES soccer and the kids play everyday. My host family really likes Manchester United and they are always watching it on tv, which I quite enjoy :)

-Sometimes I accidentally speak Spanish instead of Kiswahili and everyone looks at me really strange. I don't know how people can speak multiple languages and keep them separated!

-They tell the time differently here, which was really confusing in the beginning. The day starts at 6 am. So when its 7 am they actually say its 1. So 12:30 pm, would actually be 6:30. The funny thing is that they all set their clocks on english time but they only refer to Kiswahili time.

-There are chickens, and cats, and even a few cows roaming through most of the streets. It doesn't even seem weird to me any more when I see a chicken and her chicks walking by my front door.

-Right now there are a ton of tourists in Zanzibar for the Busara Music Festival. Its held in the old fort and groups from all over Africa come to play. I am planning on going to that tonight and tomorrow night with my friends.

-We took a boat ride to prison island and went snorkeling there. The corals are always so amazing to me and I even saw a blue starfish! We went on the island as well and I got to feed these really big tortoises that can live up to 150 years old!!!! I actually got sea sick because the water was so rough when we were snorkeling, but the tortoises made me feel better :)

-There are strong British, Arabic, and Indian influences in Zanzibar culture. 99 percent of Zanzibar is Muslim so I always hear thier call to prayer 5 times a day. Most of the people here speak Kiswahili, English, and Arabic.

-At the Institute of Marine Science where i have class everyday they have an aquarium with a loggerhead turtle! I helped take care of a loggerhead turtle this past summer at the Virginia Living Museum so i was excited to be able to visit the turtles relative :)

- Right now it is the hottest part of the year. It is very humid and probably around 90 F every day. Today it is raining which is really nice because it is still really sunny and bright, but the perfect temperature outside!

Alright, that's all for now. Hopefully I have given you a glimpse of what life is like here. I hope everyone is doing well and surviving through winter time! Ta ta for now!
Emily

Here are some pictures of Stonetown. I am not sure how to flip them, and my time is up again but hopefully you can still see them alright :)

Stonetown

Turtle!

This is what I look at on the way to school every morning!

The Mr. Bean Boat and the amazingly clear water!

Flipper and Familia

Mambo!

In which you reply "Poa"! Its basically slang for saying hi that all of the young people use around here, and Poa means cool, or fresh which I think is pretty funny.

So I went to Paje village last weekend and stayed at this really nice beach resort. One morning we got up at 5:30and took a 30 minute bus ride to another part of the island and we got to swim with wild dolphins which was amazing! We took a boat out pretty far and the guide found the dolphins for us. Once he found them we all would jump out of the boat (with all of our snorkeling gear on) and swim right above them! We tried to swim with them and follow them, but let me tell you, dolphins are fast (Flipper is really faster than lightning!). My little fins could not keep up with them, but we were still able to stay near them for a few minutes. We saw several families of dolphins and some of them would even come to the surface just a few feet away from me (we weren't allowed to touch them though). My favorite part was watching a mom and baby dolphin swimming around together and playing, it was so cute! And just to make the day even better, after we swam with the dolphins we went to a butterfly center and got to see hundreds of beautiful butterflies flying all around! It was definitely a good day.

On Thursday i moved in with my host family. They are nice and welcoming and have a nice house. I think they must be pretty well off compared to some of the other families that live here. We have a maid who does all of the cooking and cleaning, and we also have a normal bathroom and a shower (I am very thankful for that!). Most of the other people in my program are staying with families who have outhouses and they have to take bucket showers, so i got lucky with mine :) Besides my host mama and baba, I live with a 14 year old boy (who speaks some English, so he is basically my translator), a 6 year old girl, a really cute 4 year old boy (whose name is muda :)) and their niece lives with them and she has a 1 year old baby. So whenever I need something to do i have lots of kids to play with so I love that! I have my own room that has a desk, sofa, and a fan so I am quite happy! I will be staying there until the 14th. So everything is going well there, although the language barrier can be really difficult sometimes. Since I have only had like a week of Kiswahili class I have a VERY limited vocabulary, so its hard sometimes. I have got all of the greetings down but after that it takes me like 5 minutes to say a sentence that they will understand. I know it will get better though, and they are very willing to help me learn and are constantly teaching me how to say things.

Well my time is up again! I will post again soon to tell you about my adventure at prison island and I am sure I will have more stories about things that happen with my host family.

Kwa heri,
Amalya (my new kiswahili name)