Hello Togo!: January 2010

With all the holidays, I've been traveling a lot lately, but I'd planned this 10-day trip to Tanzania and Zanzibar since last summer. Drew, my good friend from high school, has been working as a general manager at GOSESO (an environmental NGO) in Kigoma, Tanzania for the past year, and so I used my tax refund money from last year to plan a trip out to visit him before he leaves in April.

Since my ticket flew me out of Accra, Ghana, I planned the trip in such a way that I could get my GREs out of the way at the same time (Accra has a legitimate testing center for the GRE test). So the day after New Years, after months of studying by lantern light and roosters' crowing serenades, I took a bush taxi to Accra, took my test the morning of the 3rd, and then got on a plane that evening!

Drew met me at the airport in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We spent the first day and a half in Dar just wandering around the city, but most of the rest of the trip was spent in Zanzibar. We took a 2 hour ferry to get to Stonetown, Zanzibar which is a fantastic city. Zanzibar gets its electricity from Dar, and apparently the electricity had just recently gone out and was going to take months to repair. Luckily, being habituated to our living situations back in our villages, I think Drew and I suffered less than the average tourist. My favorite part about Zanzibar was that, in spite of the large tourist industry there, I didn't feel harrassed as a foreigner as I do in Togo, for example. Instead of hearing the yells of "Yovo!" (white person) that I hear all the time in Togo, people and kids would just say "Jambo!" (how are you?) which I preferred greatly. It was also nice not to be stared at, and everyone in general just seemed so much more chill and welcoming.

Stonetown's streets fascinated me because the multiple-storied buildings and houses are largely crowded together, and to get around you often have to navigate through twisting alleys. It was fun because while we would often just guess which alley to take, we never really got lost because all the alleys eventually end up on a main road. The architecture has this beautiful rustic feel to it, and the city seems to be especially renowned for the ornate doors on its buildings. It made me wish I'd read up more on the history of the city before I'd arrived.

We ate a lot of seafood and curries. Zanzibar is known as the "Spice Island" for all the spices it produces. One day Drew and I went on a "spice tour" where we went to a farm and saw all kinds of plants and trees including those that produce spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, vanilla, cloves, pepper, and lemongrass, and fruits including pineapple, jackfruit, starfruit, and dorian. During our stay we also took cheap trips (by way of the dalla-dallas - Zanzibar's equivalent to bush taxis) to the beaches on the northern and eastern sides of the island. The beaches all have pretty turquoise water and white sand. My one biggest complaint about Zanzibar was the overabundance of cats that roam the island; I've never seen so many wild, begging cats in my life! In spite of staying at hotels and eating out frequently, the trip was pleasantly affordable, and the trip overall was a welcomed, relaxing time spent away from village.