The trip to Zanzibar

(From the Summer of 2003)

Jacob lived in Makunduchi the summer before we met. It is a small rural village on Zanzibar Island, off the coast of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He was doing a field study through BYU at the time. While there, in addition to learning Swahili, he collected data regarding dietary intake and nutrition practices of Muslim children. There was a small piece of data that he failed to get at the time that he wanted to get now to make his data complete. He was hoping to develop a measurement tool for food consumption in the absence of precise measuring equipment. So we traveled from Nairobi all the way back to Makunduchi for that single piece of data, and I was thrilled to be able to see where Jacob had lived before we met.

To get to Zanzibar we took the overnight bus from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam and then we took a ferry across to the island. It is a shame we had to take the overnight bus because I would have loved to see the scenery better. But we were poor students at the time and we couldn't afford the nicer bus. As it was, I still saw some awesome sights. I awoke to the sun rising over the Serengeti - a moment I will never forget and cannot describe - and saw as the scenery changed from plains to very green and very beautiful diverse forests as we passed a very old mountain range. I saw people of all kinds walking along the road, Maasai villages, and a large variety of dwellings. We were now near the Maasai Steppe and for the duration of our stay in Tanzania we ran into one or a few Maasai in full traditional clothing everywhere and anywhere we went.

The Maasai are known for continuing to wear their traditional tribal clothing regardless of how integrated they become into society as a whole. While on the ferry to Zanzibar I found myself needing to use the bathroom. I searched around and finally found one just off the outer deck. It was occupied so I waited just outside for my turn. I must say I had a bit of a start when it was a tall Maasai man in full traditional atire who popped out of the loo. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I just wasn't expecting to see him in such a modern setting.

These children in Makunduchi were some of Jacob's neighbors and study subjects back in the summer of 2001. They were very instrumental in helping him to learn Swahili. You can just hear them gleefully shouting, "Mzungu! Kupiga picha!" which literally means, "White person! Take a picture!"

The villagers were glad to see Jacob again and to see that he had a wife. He confided to me that he had been offered a few wives while he was there last. All of which he had refused. We had brought a few yards of fine green and gold patterned cloth with us as a gift for Jacob's old housekeeper and cook, Fatuma. We had purchased it on the streets of Dar es Salaam the day before. To our disappointment Fatuma had gone to a neighboring town the day of our visit. Her family said she would cry when she found out she had missed our visit. There was no way we could have sent word ahead of time to announce our visit. There is no electricity where they are and the mail system would have been too slow.

But Jacob saw many other old friends. Upon seeing him again, the first thing everyone said was "Yakubu! Umenepa!" which means, "Jacob! You have gotten fat!" It was true. Jacob had been very skinny (6'3" and 180 lbs) when we got married and was now about 40 pounds heavier. Still not fat, but definitely less skinny. They were giving him a compliment and everyone attributed it to being married. But we know better. He gained most of his weight while living with a Luo man named Ashiembi in Western Kenya in the previous months. (Barak Obama's father was also a Luo man, and all the Luos we know are extremely proud of that fact.) Ashiembi was a veterinarian and was wealthy enough to support his mother and two wives. Jacob reports that for dinner, he and Ashiembi would visit the second wife's house and be fed a great dinner of rice, vegetables, salt fish from lake Victoria, and hot whole milk, fresh from the cow, boiled with cinnamon and sweetened with sugar. Afterward, they came home to the first wife's house and were fed another huge dinner of the same. Then they would be invited over to Ashiembi's mother's house for yet another feast. It is rude to turn down food. What was Jacob to do? He had to keep eating even if he was so full it hurt.

After collecting the data we needed from Makunduchi, we spent a little time with some of Jacob's friends in Stonetown. Jacob was very pleased with the effect my presence had on the trip as a whole because I increased our access to the world of the women. I can access different parts of life that Jacob cannot because I am a woman and he is not.

Jacob took this picture of me with the women of the household in Stonetown. We had just finished eating a meal together from a huge communal plate of coconut-cooked rice with fruit while sitting on a mat on the floor as is the tradition there. It was delicious.

While in Zanzibar we stayed in Stonetown at a very comfortable bed and breakfast. It was near Forodani - the best eating spot in town. Every night at sunset the seaside would come alive at Forodani where the fishermen and their families sell their freshly prepared catch from the Indian Ocean along with glasses of freshly pressed sugar cane juice flavored with lime. Heaven in a glass. At Forodani you find all kinds of amazingly fresh and delicious seafood at impossibly low prices, roasted on a grill. You go past the rows of food, point at which piece of octopus, squid, lobster, or fish you want, and they put it on a plate for you with a savory sauce.

Here I am in the bedroom at the bed and breakfast, displaying the bites I got on my leg from an overzealous insect who traveled with us on the overnight bus from Nairobi. He must have gotten stuck inside my sock and been mad about it.

This is the view from Stonetown on the Zanzibar coast looking west over the ocean toward the African continent. Dar es Salaam is too far away to see.

Our stay in Zanzibar was far too short. It is a fascinating and historical place - the birthplace of Swahili and a place of trade among different cultures and continents for centuries. I'm so glad we went, even if it was for a little while.