Africa House Stone Town

Sorry it's been so long again, I've been all over the place - village, travelling within Tanzania for my holidays and back in Iringa sick again! After I last wrote I spent a couple of weeks in my village, just teaching in the primary school because the secondary has closed down for holidays, and trying to give some seminars in the community. The teaching is still going great, ever improving as my level of Kiswahili also improves, but working with community adults remains our largest challenge...

Hakuna Matata ... non non, c'est pas juste dans le Roi Lion que ca se dit! C'est swahili et ca veut dire la meme chose que dans le film, que j'ai soudainement le gout de revoir! On diy aussi "jambo" pour dire bonjour ... est-ce que le contraste pourrait etre plus grand du Soudan? J'en suis a mes dernieres heures de break a Zanzibar ... plus qu'un seul coucher de soleil a savourer, cocktail en main. J'en profite pour ecrire maintenant car je sais que la minute ou je rentrerai a la maison - pas...

My last day on Zanzibar Island was great. I took one of the famous Mr Mitu's Spice Tours. The tour took us to the spice plantations of Zanzibar where we saw the plant form of many spices like chocolate, vanilla, lemongrass, nutmeg, allspice, mace, etc. It was quite facinating. After a great, spicy lunch, the tour took us to the persian baths, a beach, and a coral cave. That evening, I met some of my group at the Africa House Hotel. This is the place to go for sundown. After sunset, a few of u...

While Matt slaved up Mt. Kilimanjaro for 6 days in below freezing temps......Amy headed to the beach to relax in 90 degree weather! We were both doing things we enjoyed and loving life. It was strange to be apart for 8 days, but after 6 months together 24 hours a day it was a refreshing time alone. I was ready to meet back up after our time apart, but enjoyed my time alone. Zanzibar is off the coast of Tanzania around 2 hours by boat. It reminded me a mix of Hoi An, Vietnam 'combo packed' (my...

Jambo Jambo from the paradise island of Zanzibar... Since leaving the base of Kilimanjaro on the 8th June we travelled directly to the bustling town of Dar es Salaam, stopping only for a couple of pee-stops and a 20 minute halt at a Tanzanian service station where for around 6 dollars we wolfed a plate of rice, chicken curry, goat stew and samosas - good recipe for indigestion! Arriving at D-e-S we take a short ferry ride across the bay and Lou and I elect to take a small bungalow on the beac...

Three weeks ago I arrived on the beautiful island of Unguja (local name for Zanzibar), in the Zanzibar Archipelago. This includes the island of Pemba and numerous other small islands, which together make up the "Spice Islands". I arrived with the Greenforce team on a ferry from Dar in the early evening. We had been looking forward to swimming in the beautiful Indian Ocean for what seemed like the entire 10 weeks. The first evening we stayed in Stone Town before heading to the beautiful beach ...