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Hey guys, Loob here - we're in Stone Town, Zanzibar on our week off before we head to Ghana on Thursday! It's bloody beautiful, with great architecture, food and weather! More importantly, it has f***ing loads of touristy tat to buy - so me and Andie are tres happy. Been staying at St Monica's hostel which is built over the old Slave Market. We had a tour of the cathedral now built in it's place and of the remaining slave chambers - which were an eye-opener to say the least. We've been given the lowdown on 30 years of Zanzibarian politics and revolution from our new friend Mrs Luis, who owns "Luis Yogurt Parlour" (the best place in town for curries, yoghurt shakes and lime+avo juice). She's a tiny Goan lady, with more anger at the Zanzibarian government than you can believe!
Zanzibar is a weird place - it's so touristy compared to what we're used to. There are almost more Mzungu (the Tanzanian's call foreign/white people this) than Africans. Our Swahili is giving us a great haggling advantage though!
There are a lot of fake Maasai warriors walking around - in their beads and cloth drapes - selling jewellry. Some are a little bit chubs - with big grins,fat faces and high voices. The real Maasai we saw in Muheza at the hospital were tall, muscular and terrifying. Most didn't speak Swahili, let alone English, and you can be sure that NONE of them ever made touristy jewellry. One Maasai woman on the ante-natal ward was so upset at her blood transfusion that she tore it out screaming and covered herself, her bed and most of the ward in blood. She was screaming and writhing and spat at Andie, until her Maasai friend lassoo-ed her around the head with some cloth and slapped the s*** out of her until she calmed down. The nurse (Mama Matthew) and her bearded companions leapt on a limb each and pinned her down until Dr Sally could remove her cannula. Fortunately, she didn't need to as the Maasai had already ripped it out. FIERCE. A chubby man selling jewellry is hardly convincing in comparison.
Dr Drea is now here! More from her:
Just a recap on our activities until now: after our first evening in Stone Town, where we discovered the aforementioned Mrs Luis, we went straight to a beach on the south east coast called Jambiani. We stayed at a hotel run by a group of Rastas, the organisation was....mellow but the bar was extremely well stocked especially for Rastas who are meant to be teetotal! Hello Amaretto! Just try to imagine paradise, and that's what it looked like - white sands and turqoise sea! Add in old woman harrassing you for "Massahay" and you have the right idea. On our way to Jambiani, we visited a spice farm for a tour fulfilling our role as a tourist. Some of the tour was spent walking around wearing banana leaf crowns, necklaces, cravats, handbags and watches! Attractive and biodegradable - perfect attire for the eco-friendly Mzungu. The look was enhanced by the lipstick fruit which turned out lips a pleasant terracotta colour and made us looks like transexuals (photos to follow). We had a tropical fruit tasting session where we discovered the TOTAL JOY of the custardapple fruit and the Jack fruit - fondly known as the Jacque Chiraq. Delicious. They tried to sell us some ground ginger, which was reknowned for it's ability to "empower the sexual organ". Sounds terrifying, I know.
We packed Thom off to the airport in a taxi this afternoon - after 2 weeks with us! He said it felt like a lifetime - we can only assume this is because of our timeless good looks and enjoyable company. He may disagree. Hopefully he will arrive in England in under 24 hours. Watch out FOD.
We'll write again soon, peace out marahabas!
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