October

Day 9 - Friday 5th October
To do at least something on our holiday we took an hour long Dalla-Dalla (local buses where you will find your self sharing a seat with a Massai or even chickens or a goat) journey to the main city of Zanzibar, Stone Town, for the day.

Day 13 - Tuesday 9th October 
Without much to do and with Sarah and I going on about just wanting to watch a movie we spend the day at Herry’s house. The weather outside is awful though so a movie day is a great alternative. One of Herry’s little brothers, 3 year old Kevin, is also around as he was too sick to go to school…funnily enough he was fine playing with us! ;-) After school, another of Herry’s brother’s joins us, 5 year old Francis. After playing with the boys we have dinner, Ughali (the local maize-based food, looks a bit like very sticky rice but doesn’t really taste of anything), beans and spinach-like vegetables. Ughali is eaten by breaking off a little bit and rolling it in your right hand to form a ball. Once you have done that you then pick up a few of the beans and some of the vegetables with the same hand and eat it all at once. Who says mealtimes can’t be fun! :D

Day 16 - Friday 12th October

It’s time to say bye to Sarah. Next time we will see each other again will be back at work in the middle of the winter, how different that will be!

Day 17 - Saturday 13th October

As Dar only has a couple of big roads all the traffic builds up here, causing massive traffic jams. The 25 minute journey to the town centre can take several hours depending on what time of the day! To avoid the traffic we took a slightly longer route through several small communities. Every family seems to run their own little convenient store/hut selling fruit, nuts or second-hand clothes, phone credit or are generally just sitting under a tree waiting for someone to offer them work for the day. It seems disused railway tracks also make a great footpath. But my favourite bit about African streets by far is when traffic comes to a halt. Men, seemingly appearing from nowhere, come up to your window trying to sell you all sorts of things: mugs, disposable gloves, children's blow-up water toys and chairs, cold drinks, newspapers,DVDs, chewing gum, cigarettes, toilet seats, and my favourite a fish tank with fish just to name a few.

Day 18 - Sunday 14th October

Sundays are the day for rest! For this reason most of the shops are closed today. The majority of locals spend the day going to church ( a service can last anything from 1 hour up to 2 1/2 hours) and spending time with friends and family. After a relaxing morning and catching up with writing my journal, I went to town to collect Neema, Herry's sister. As we arrive we are invited in for lunch (it doesn't matter how little food there is you will always be invited to share it and it would be rude to decline it). There was lots of food though as people tend to expect visitors.

Day 23 - Friday 19th October
Today is also Laundry Day! Instead of throwing everything in the washing machine it's a lengthy process which can take several hours. First of all you will have to soak your clothes in washing powder to get the dirt out. You then change the the water and do the same thing again but this time using your hands to scrub the clothes. Once the stains have been removed you have to rinse everything in order to get out all the soap. Finally the washing needs to be hung outside on the washing line to dry!