3:50

Another cool thing about Swahili culture is Swahili time: the day begins when the sun rises at 6am (and since we’re close to the equator, it really does rise at 6am all year long). Therefore, the system of time begins at 6am… so, for example, when it’s 7am, you actually say that it’s 1.

I took this photo at almost 4 in the afternoon… it took a few days to add 6 to every time, but once I got the hang of it, I liked it!

Fun cultural differences, eh?

I still love drinking tea in public spaces

Zanzibar still has active public spaces, and dotted around the city you can find men (yes, it is a gendered activity) clustered together around a tea or coffee kettle enjoying spiced tea and snacks (peanuts with gooey sweet stuff). Oblivious to the fact that it’s sort of a men’s place/time, I sat down at this tea spot and ended up spending hours chatting (in Swahili) with these guys. And of course, I immensely enjoyed sipping deeeeeelicious tea in these cute little cups!

I had a great conversation with this guy about the imbalance of education and resources between Africa and the West, and what we can do about it. One of my lessons learned is just the pure power of a good education... I think this is one of the most important things we can "help" with around the world.... (just HOW to do it is the question, but that's for another time).

A small village in Zanzibar

So, when my body and mind both needed a rest from my cross-pollination journey, I spent a week in Nunge Village, the northernmost point of Zanzibar Island.


The coastline at high tide… at low tide we walked 30 minutes down to the next village for the Almost Full Moon/May Day party. Good times.

This is Sele, who gave me the most delicious cardamom/cinnamon coffee every day. He also gave me great life advice.

The village is very mellow… I went there for all my meals (avoiding the tourist places on the beach). Every day, I ate deeeelicious rice and beans, chappatis and tea, all made with fresh spices. Yum yum. This photo is of Fatma, one of the two women who fed me dinner each night. They would pull a table into the “sidewalk” area and people would congregate. I loved it. (I didn’t catch a photo of our dinners, so here are my friends at the spot where we ate.)

Cinderella

I did some work trade for a few days to stay in a nice place on the beach, and then after a few days there I just slept on the beach.

SPICES!!!!

Back at home, we try hard to eat locally, but spices are one of the few remaining items that we buy from across the world. And here I am on “Spice Island”—so I went on a spice tour to see how these things are grown. Of course, they didn’t really answer my questions about the use of chemicals or the lifestyle of the workers, but it was good to learn a bit more about how and where my favorite tastes are created.

So here is your tour:

Lemongrass

Tumeric

“Lipstick fruit” – natural dye. (thanks to the goofy American for the pose)

Pepper – black, white, green and red, all from the same plant. This is me, proving that indeed, a bite of this vine is quite strongly peppery!

Very special: cardamom!! This plant is an orchid, with flowers crawling out over the ground… very cool. Yum.

Super yum: fresh cinnamon bark!!!

Also very special: CLOVES! Here is the tree and a close up of the fruit. I wish I could share this delicious smell with you!!

Another special spice: nutmeg. Isn’t the outside of the nut so pretty?

One of the best smells in the world – ylangi ylangi flower. I couldn’t stop smelling it. It’s used for perfumes and bath gels, but nothing is like the scent of the flower itself.

And last but not least, vanilla… a very difficult to grow orchid. Each flower is hand pollinated… and it’s expensive to buy even here where it’s grown.

ZIFF – super creative art for social change and peace building

If you go back to my blog entry from the first day of the WSF (January 21), you can see that I met Martin and learned about the Zanzibar International Film Festival, which is more than just movies, but also social action, conversations and conscious cross cultural learning.

I met up with Martin in Stonetown and learned more about the awesome work of ZIFF. Through the year, they use media to promote peace and understanding. He told me about a really creative effort to use film to create a healthy conversation between factions of village conflicts… first they show a movie in the village and allow everyone to just watch it together, but at the same time they videotape the experience, including the people asking questions to ZIFF, and just being people. The next night they will show the video to both sides of the conflict, so that they can see with a bit of perspective that everyone is just human, sharing a common experience.

Then, they ask each side to select a person to explain what the conflict is about, and to select another person to be the videographer of that spokesperson. The ZIFF folks will teach anyone to use a video camera, as they know that things are better explained by and to people who know and feel comfortable with each other.

So, each side of the conflict will videotape themselves explaining the issues at hand. Then, ZIFF shows the videos to the other side of the conflict, allowing each group to see the other with space, time and perspective, and with no pressure for immediate defensiveness or reaction.

Then they will continue to videotape the groups until they are able to speak together and resolve the issue. Really interesting ideas! They say that it works quite well… and even works across power dynamics, like between a village and government officials. Nice work.

Here is a photo of a movie being shown in the town park… they show movies three times a week for a few months before the film festival as a build up and as education for people, getting people used to seeing videos of other cultures and ideas. ZIFF’s focus is on the “Dhow Countries,” the countries linked by the dhow boat on the Indian Ocean.

Zanzibar!!!!

Zanzibar, an island off the coast of Tanzania, is one of those very special places in the world -- it still has unique culture, un-Americanized!!! Swahili culture extends along the coast of East Africa, but much of its origin is Zanzibar. Zbar is also where the most pure form of Kiswahili language is spoken, and I had a really great time learning it! In fact, I spoke Kiswahili 90% of the time I was there!! So much fun, and such a good way to get past the normal tourist-local relationships that tend to happen.

Zanzibar is special in so many ways… with its laid back island pace, dhows (wooden boats with one sail, used for centuries), abundance of ocean-related food, fresh spices of all kinds, and Swahili Muslim/African culture. It’s just a special place. Stonetown, the main town, is a labyrinth of skinny little streets and courtyards, where you can explore for hours, finding hidden spots for spiced tea/coffee, bakeries, little stores, and lots of people sitting on ledges chatting the day away. Old men ride bicycles trough the windy streets, women with colorful head covers exchange gossip, children bounce balls off the old stone walls of buildings… it just feels nice. And once in awhile the loud speakers of the closest mosque ring out its prayers.

Of course, I tried hard to block out the tourist trap aspects that certainly dominated many parts of town (speaking Swahili helped) and I avoided the “friendly” approaches of the infamous “beach boys.” And there are certainly other, more hidden, aspects and issues of Zanzibar (like the international drug trafficking), but I needed a break from the issues of the world…. so with this report I will just share pretty pictures.

This was my first few hours on the island… sunset in Stonetown… the beach filled with boys playing soccer, people doing acrobatics, kids swimming, women strolling, fishing dhows returning home with dinner’s catch… it just felt so peaceful and mellow.

Zanzibar pizza: fried dough with veggies and egg inside. Yum. Everything in Zanzibar seems to be fried. Goes well with spices and tea!

This photo is of an almost full moon over the beautiful architecture of Stonetown.