Stone Town, the largest city in Zanzibar, is a place of sensory overload. Each winding alley brings you face to face with bustling bazaars, mosques, and beautiful carved wooden doors. The labyrinth of streets makes it almost impossible to find the same place twice, but that is half the fun. Not only is Stone Town appealing to the eye but the abundance of fresh tropical fruits and locally grown spices are a treat to your taste buds. When we tired of wandering the streets of Stone Town we indulged in fresh coffee spiced with locally grown cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, passion fruit juice, homemade chapattis, and some of the most delicious freshly caught fish. While we enjoyed wandering and exploring my favorite part of Stone Town was our final Saturday morning. Up early we dressed conservatively and went to Ben Bella Secondary School for the Students for Students International Health Seminar.Students for Students International is a non-profit organization whose mission is to create educational opportunities for high-achieving students in the developing world, with the belief that education is essential to community leadership and a country’s development. Based at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Amit and I began working with S4Si during our first year of college in 2004. There were countless hours spent in meetings, recruiting volunteers, planning educational e
vents, and so much fundraising. During undergraduate I was inspired by the idea of helping to fund the education of female students. But across an ocean and continent, I had no idea what the reality of the S4Si scholarship was, until a few weeks ago.You can imagine how excited I was to meet the infamous S4Si scholars who I had worked with for 4 years but never actually seen. We began the morning discussing nutrition but quickly launched into female reproductive anatomy. Despite the lack of a projector, the makeshift chalkboard drawings did the trick and we continued the morning with a discussion of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. With a few snack breaks, before I knew it the morning had flown by and it was time for the girls to go home. The health seminar was a success! I was amazed by the intelligence of all the scholars and their prowess of the English language. It is hard to describe in words how wonderful it was to see with my own eyes that the work we had done for many years was really and truly making a difference in the lives of these remarkable young women. To learn more about S4Si you can check out the website: http://s4siunc.org/
Alright, time to let Priyanka take a break. Amit’s your guide on a vacation in Matemwe.
After two months of
toil and trouble in Tanzania, three days of nothing but laziness was not something I was going to feel guilty for. A ride on a one hour dala dala, the local transport van, was a guaranteed cultural experience in itself. Open air and bumping all the way to Matemwe, our rear ends were happier than ever to switch from the barely cushioned benches to the soft beach sand typical of the eastern coast of Zanzibar. Here, the finest whitest sand one may ever see forms an endless strip separating the brilliant blue waters from the overhanging palms of the coastline. The mornings are restful, the afternoons are relaxing, and the evenings are breezy. Matemwe is both an idyllic getaway for travelers and a fascinating home for locals. After treating ourselves to fresh squeezed juice, Spanish omelets and toast we would walk the ten yards to the beach, our home until the stomachs indicated it was time for lunch. The morning view was always dotted by women wrapped in multi-colored kangas making their seaweed collection rounds. With the tide low, the women were able to wade knee-deep to their collection site. Hours could easily tick by just watching the work progress. Women would come with empty hands and leave hours later with dressing gowns of seaweed trailing behind them. On afternoon walks we would notice the same seaweed hanging from makeshift clotheslines connecting the palms. Curiosity was certainly peaked by thi
s practice, but in honor of “pure physical and mental relaxation”, I never did figure out what the purpose of harvesting all that seaweed was. Regardless, the fascination remained and I watched from morning to afternoon.Once the tide came in we were free to wash away the morning heat before returning to the bungalows for some casual reading. And each evening ended with an incredible meal of the catch of the day, grilled and curried with stir-fried vegetables and rice. If ever in Tanzania, I am happy to provide a personal guarantee that you will not be disappointed with Sele’s Bungalows in Matemwe!
And now I'm back in the states just four days away from the start of year 2. Thank you all for reading and writing! Hope you had a great summer and enjoyed the blog!
