It’s a very strange feeling to be in Africa surrounded by people who are leaving in just a few days, but knowing that you will be staying for another 2 months. I put in a request to change my flight home to the 18th of July. While the airline said that there is a possibility that the request will not go through and I will have to hang my head in shame as I hop on a May 16th flight, I’m keeping my fingers crossed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (makes typing difficult) that they are just saying that for liability reasons. Who knows, though… either way it is bizarre to not know which continent you will be on next week.
We have finished all of the academic and logistical parts of the study abroad program, and now we are mostly just hanging out during the day and boogying the nights away. Yesterday we went to Prison Island, about a 20-minute boat ride away, where they have a tortoise sanctuary. There were dozens of tortoises meandering around, chomping on spinach that we offered them, and making strange hissing noises at us when we ran out of edible vegetable matter for them to feast on. I couldn’t believe how big they were- some at least 3 feet tall. Their giant legs look prehistoric and their shells are so thick that they appear to be invincible. Along with the peacocks and miniature deer-like duikers that were running around the island, I was definitely confused about where we were and what time period it might have been.
Last time I wrote I told you that I was on my way to a wedding- it was outrageous. First of all, I didn’t realize that we were invited to only one of the 3-4 days of celebration. The actual ceremony is only the husband and wife in the mosque and a whole series of different celebrations take place after the actual ceremony. We went the second night, when mostly women come to dance and listen to Tarab music. We were told to arrive at 8 o’clock at Bwawani Hotel (side note: this is the night club that we sometimes go to. I have only been there once, but it was insane. It’s on the roof of a building and there is a GIANT, empty swimming pool with some small posts around it to protect people from drunkenly plummeting to their deaths. The night we were there, there were lots of psychedelic lights spinning in all directions and hundreds of enormous grasshoppers that I thought were bats until I spotted one on my shoulder under one of the neon green lights….). So, knowing that things never start on time here, we decided to arrive fashionably late at around 8:30. Sure enough, when we arrived, about ¼ of the guests were there…. And they were dressed to kill.
Before going to the wedding, I was asked on several occasions what I was going to wear to the wedding. I had a nice dress that I assumed was appropriate, but got some funny looks from Zanzibari women when I told them I was going to wear it. Maybe an hour or so before the wedding, we were told to, “look like peacocks.” I thought that sounded nice but didn’t realize that all of the women took that statement absolutely literally. I have never seen so many shiny, sequenced, brightly colored full-length dresses in my entire life. The outfits that people wore to this celebration were way beyond what would be appropriate for an occasion like prom or any other celebration in the US where people get dressed up. It was really fun to see them all in their Saturday-night bests… but really strange to see all the women with their heads uncovered! They were all done up with fancy hairdos and busting moves on the dance floor. It was almost too much to process.
The most fascinating part of the whole event to me was what was happening on the dance floor. There was a live band, and they played exclusively Tarab music (the loud, kind of whiny music that is traditional to Zanzibar. I really like when men sing, but when the women sing their voices are often so whiny it is really grating to listen to). The music was so loud we had to leave the room on several occasions because we had headaches… but everyone else was enjoying it SO much! As soon as each song began, a crowd of women would gather on the dance floor, waving money around in each other’s faces and at the band. The strangest part, though was that as soon as a song was about to end, the dance floor suddenly cleared out entirely. Within 10 seconds, a crowd of 40-50 women would suddenly bolt for their seats so that by the time the music stopped and a new song began, nearly everyone was back in their seat.
The bride didn’t show up until at least 11, and when she did, she was escorted in by her younger brother directly towards this large, sequenced fish, plush-toy like sculpture that somebody had made for the occasion. The groom came in later and joined her on a bench near the fish, and the two of them had their picture taken with an assortment of different people for no less than an hour. She looked so nervous to me- I cannot imagine an arranged marriage like that- and after the wedding she was moving to Hong Kong where her husband worked….After the pictures ended, we all ate dinner (around midnight). We had definitely had enough excitement at that point, so we dipped out.
Enough about the wedding…. On to new topic. Wild African Safaris!!
We finished our Independent Study Project early so that we could go on vacation! We decided that our time in Tanzania would not be complete until we took a trip up towards the Northern Circuit (ie Serengeti region). We took 5 days at the end of our time to take a ferry to Dar es Salaam, a bus to Arusha (10 hours), go on safari one day, take the bus back and then the ferry back. The trip was insane- we spent so much time staring out of windows and being escorted around the country in different forms of transportation, but I am so happy we did it. We saw Mount Kilimanjaro from the bus, met tons of people, and got to visit Ngorongoro crater (AMAZING). We saw a cheetah, 4 lions, rhinos, ostriches, flamingos, zebras, water buffaloes, hippos, elephants, warthogs, and just about everything else you might expect to see on an African safari. It was so fun!
Okay, I am proud of anyone who has read all of this. I know I can get a little wordy.
I think I’ll be leaving Zanzibar on the 18th of May to go to the mainland. I have absolutely loved all of the letters and postcards that everyone has sent, but for now if you are going to send anything, wait a few days until I get my new address. If you send stuff here I will still get it, but not until the middle of July.
I hope everyone is doing well. I miss and love you, but am SO excited to cohabitate with elephants!
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