A Little More Africa
Trip Start
Dec 05, 2009
1
16
33
Trip End
Sep 23, 2010
Jambiani, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I decided there were a few more things to write about our time in Africa. So here goes.
First of all, much to my surprise, no one corrected me on a glaring error in my previous entry. I wrote that Dar es Salaam is the capital of Tanzania, but that is not so. Dodoma is actually the capital though tourists rarely if ever go there.
In both Kenya and Tanzania whenever someone learned that Ben and I were from the U.S., Obama always became the topic of conversation. In Kenya (where he was born), they LOVE him. People sell Obama tapestries and tshirts on the street and his name is in graffiti everywhere. In Tanzania, he is very popular as well, but people are more skeptical and a couple of locals that we spoke with mentioned that Bush had done a lot for the country. Interesting!
Ben's birthday was last Friday and to celebrate we used a free night from hotels.com (thank you Dad!) to stay in a VERY nice hotel in Zanzibar. I told the staff that it was Ben's bday hoping they might upgrade us to a nicer room. Not only did they upgrade us to a beautiful room and give us a late checkout, they made a cake for Ben and had 16 staff members dance and sing as they presented it to him. It was quite the spectacle. They had tambourines and were all dressed in white and they completely surrounded us as we had drinks at the bar. The bootie shaking by the women was quite impressive! I would have been utterly humiliated, but Ben handled it well. I have to say, it was the best birthday singing ever...ever! For the next 12 hours that we were guests, everyone knew who Ben was and would address him by name. It was kind of cool.
Apparently, about 3 weeks before we arrived in Zanzibar a 3 month power outage ended. Three months!!!! That's a long time without power for a whole island. In fact, we were told it set a record. By the time we arrived, things we back up and running for the most part, but the power shorted out several times for an hour or so. Many of the fancy hotels had generators, but many had to shut down during that time.
In my explanation for the title of my last entry (Hakuna Matata) I forgot to mention that people actually use the phrase all the time. I was surprised by that.
And finally, not only did I miss speaking Spanish while in Africa, I missed blending in. I've been mistaken for many ethnicities in my time, but never for African. In South America, I don't stand out at all which is nice. In Africa, not the case...at all!
Okay, that wraps up Africa for real this time. We are now in Mumbai, India and so far, so good. I thought I would be drowning in my own sweat by now, but much to my delight it is no hotter than Zanzibar was. In fact, it may be cooler. More on India to come later.
I hope you are all happy and well and a very happy birthday to my sister! And a chag sameach to all!
Love,
Holly
Comments
While we are correcting you, President Obama was born in Hawaii his dad was born in Kenya. We have enough birthers running around here without you starting a new theory. Sounds like you guys are doing great! Enjoy India!
Love,
Randi and Adam