Sangria Soup

The Sangria in Zanzibar is so thick that it's like having a cup of fruit soup rather than actual sangria but... it's probably the best Sangria I've ever had the pineapples were delicious!

Zanzibar certainly was an adventure. The first adventure began Friday night when we landed and we found out that our friends luggage with all our liquids(ie sunscreen) had not come through because they had run out of room on the plane. (Let me give you a little insight into how airports work in Tanzania...you are more likely to get your luggage if you fly to 3 different cities rather than if you only fly to one, when you have connecting flights you have to get off and go through security twice just to get on the same plane you were just on, a small bag of chips costs about $5.)

Okay, so we figured we'll just buy sunscreen at the resort..no problem right. Wrong, a bottle of sunscreen costs 35$ and increases based on the level of SPF--the highest costing was about 50$, we opted for the $35. Well, I'll spare you the long version but the sunscreen didn't work and we all came home splotchy and fried.

I just had to vent a little...Zanzibar really was incredible. Friday night upon arrival at our resort we swam in the gorgeous blue-green ocean that feels like bath water. We took lots of pictures and celebrated the fact that we someplace so beautiful with a delicious buffet dinner and several drinks. (Did I mention that the resort was all inclusive?!)

Saturday we spent most of the day around the pool, looking out at the gorgeous ocean, swimming and enjoying some more cocktails from the swim-up bar. After we realized how burnt we were, we moved to the shade and continued enjoying the view. We had a fantastic dinner and ended the night with music, dancing and the sound of several birthday celebrations around the resort.

Sunday we woke up quite a different color from the day before but after some amazing omelettes and chocolate croissants we returned to our favorite spot on the beach and enjoyed our view for the last time. We checked out around noon and our tour guide took us to Stone Town.

Stone Town is impossible to describe...we thought we'd be able to navigate it alone but it's a maze of streets and buildings that all look similar. Our first stop was the old Slave market were we were taken down into the old cells and shown the conditions the slaves lived in. Let me just say that learning about slavery in history class desensitizes you to the term slave trade. After seeing the cells and hearing what people were put through, I will never think of the slave trade in the same way again. Slaves were kept in underground chambers for 2 to 3 days before entering the market. These chambers were designed to separate the strong from the weak. About half of the slaves never even made it to the market, they died of suffocation, starvation and various disease. The chambers would be uncomfortable for 10 men but they held 50. There was no light source no ventilation and the bathroom was a tiny alley in the center of the room that was only cleared when the ocean was high enough to bring water through and empty it.

After the market we visited a church whose center has a mark for where the actual whipping post used to stand. The church has a lot of history especially pertaining to the slave trade and those who stepped in to stop it. I wish I could remember more of it, but the hot Stone Town sun made my brain a little fried! (; One interesting thing is that the hold a Christian service every Sunday at 8AM in English...it\s mostly for tourists but that is still pretty cool! After visiting the Anglican Church, we walked around around and discovered new places. One of the most interesting things was seeing Freddie Mercury's old house. We also saw the house and grave of one of the leaders in the slave4 trade. He had a nickname something like tapa tat for the sound of the gun he would use to kill the weaker slaves. Very sad history but it was interesting to get a perspective other than what I have learned in history classes. One of the last stops was a famous hotel known for it's Sunset bar that looks out on the water, it is a popular hotel for tourists and celebrities. We didn't see it at sunset but I can't even imagine because the view in the middle of the day was breathtaking!

Tomorrow we are going to Arusha to visit a court there and see a hearing. The court was established in the 1990s after the second genocide in Rwanda, around 800,000 people were murdered, mostly Tutsi. Since it's creation, many of the leaders of political and radical groups responsible for the genocide have been persecuted and imprisoned. The trial we should see tomorrow is a criminal trial but I don't know it's nature.





Tutaonana Baddaye, Nawapenda