Well, that about covers the travel log on Zanzibar. I have all ready pretty covered my final day with my friends Saidi, MD and Maki in my December post Polepole.

 

Here are a few more pictures to share with you

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was hard to leave them but we had fun our last couple of hours together and I frequently hear from them now via email.

 

The details that I have not shared with you are my experiences in the ferry terminal.

 

 

As you can see, it is a rather long crowded line up. And what is actually very funny is, there is assigned seating so you are guaranteed to have a seat. Okay, maybe not exactly the one that your ticket claims is yours but there is always a seat. So what I don’t understand is why people choose to stand in a long hot line up for 45 minutes when they don’t need to?????

As evidenced by the picture I am certainly not in the que nor do I join it until it is actually moving. And guess what, I got a seat!!

While not standing in line, I spent the time observing my surrounding as I filled in yet another departure card and had my passport stamped again. It was interesting as you can see, the waiting area is literally an open concept space with a tin roof and no walls, other than the immigration office. There were some local men working on replacing some of the roof panels and I was fascinated. It was definitely not a work site like we would experience back in Canada.

The worker who was replacing the roof section was barefoot, only the worker who was actually using the saw to cut the metal sheets was wearing shoes, albeit sneakers not work boots.

what you can’t tell from the picture is that his only safety gear is a long strand of twine used to haul the piece of steel up to where he is working. If you look closely you can see the two strands blowing below them – also note the bare feet. In the next picture at least this guy had some type of scaffolding to stand on, although it doesn’t look that safe! He is also in bare feet….

 

It was interesting to learn that while there are lots of kitties in Zanzibar (just like Polperro in Cornwall, England). It is  rare to see a dog. I saw one twice in Stone Town and was told there are only two dogs in total in Stone Town. Cats are popular and look distinctly like Egyptian cats. Every one feeds them and they are actually treated very well – including not being run over by zooming dala dalas if they can avoid them.

Dogs on the other head are not popular with Muslim people so there is no population of them on the island. It was funny that I actually saw the same dog twice a day apart. A sighting is truly rare.

This kitty was looking for food tidbits from waiting passengers and actually got feed a very nice lunch!

Okay, I think that just about wraps up my trip to Zanzibar except I now need to write about some the great conversations that I had and lessons learned. They will be worth waiting for I think!