ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA PART I

The last part of June, John and I enjoyed a wonderfully relaxing and adventure-filled 8 days in Zanzibar, Tanzania. There were so many wonderful pictures and activites to share, that this blog is only the first of three about our time on this very interesting island. At the recommendation of our dear friends, Wanda Wood and Bill Damour, we stayed at the Imani Beach Villa - a charming 9 room guest house about 20 minutes north of Stone Town. Young British owners, Simon and Kristen Bennett, really know how to run a beautiful, service-oriented and relaxing place. Their staff members were accomodating, helpful and all had great personalities. They have a flexible meal plan with a menu of delicious items, ranging from hand-made somasas to chicken in coconut curry sauce and squid salad. One can order anything on the menu from 7:30 am - 9 pm at night and eat anywhere you would like. Half and full-board is available, depending upon your day's activities. Their new Tree House Bar is breezy and has a great view of the water.

The Imani is located along the water front on the west side of the island. It's beach is rocky and not really a swimming or snorkeling beach. It is covered with fisherman, their boats and nets. A very lively place.

We spent many hours reading, watching the World Cup Soccer games, responding to emails and otherwise getting to talk with their other very interesting guests. One such guest was a young East Indian engineer, currently working in Nigeria, on holiday with his parents. It turns out that in 2007, he had lived and worked in Poulsbo, WA. Each Saturday, during market season, he would meet his friends at the Poulsbo Farmers Market. He just raved about how much he loved the market. I think he probably bought tomatoes from our Smoke Tree Farms booth. What a small world!

We took advantage of many of the excursions offered by the Imani and also went reef and wreck diving with a great Dive shop (OneOcean). Although we are both certified PADI Open Water Divers, we had not been scuba diving since the late 1980s. So, the OneOcean Dive Master gave us a great little refresher course and we were on our way. It was like riding a bicycle.

Pictures above: Imani Beach Villa entrance; Imani Beach Villa Tree House Bar; fishermen's boats near the Imani;view of the sea in front of the Imani with one of the two house dogs; Simon and Kristen Bennett, owners of the Imani Beach Villa.

AFAR WEDDING

Several weeks ago we were invited to visit the bride and groom the day after their traditional Islamic Afar wedding ceremony. The groom was Ali, our local Gendarme, and his young bride was Kadiga, our kitchen helper. They were married in Dabala-Gahar, the small village across from our compound at Lac Assal, Djibouti.

The wedding ceremony and after-party took place on a Thursday afternoon and evening under two tents that were put up in the village. One tent was for the actual wedding ceremony. Only men are allowed to attend the wedding ceremony itself. It is a religious ceremony with much reading out of the Koran. The wife is represented by her father.

The women celebrate in another tent away from the men and their celebration has no religious content. We saw videos of the bride, Kadiga, dressed in a very European style hoop-skirted light yellow wedding dress posing and dancing with her girlfriends. After their separate ceremonies, they meet with their family and friends and party all night long. There is lots of Palm wine for some of the guests(although Afar Muslims do not drink alcohol) and lots of Khat. The celebration ended around 5 am in the morning. Most Djiboutian weddings, as do most other parties,take place in the evening and last until the wee hours of the morning.

The groom had asked us to come to the village at 10 am in the morning on Friday. We arrived at the compound and were told that someone would come and get us a 1:30. Djiboutians are never on time. I think they were still recovering from their all night celebrations.

Around that time, John and I were escorted down to the Ghoubet by the groom's friends who are also our Salt Investment employees, where we were served a traditional meal of three-colored rice and goat. It was served at a shaded table with cool breezes coming off the Ghoubet and with silverware and individual plates just for us. The bride/groom and their family ate the same meal in their new home on the floor, communal style with their hands while we ate at the beach.

While we were at the Ghoubet, John received a lesson in futa tieing. It was hilarious. A futa is a traditional man's sarong - a tube of cloth that can be tied in several ways around the waist. Although called by a variety of other names, the futa is traditional all over Africa and Southeast Asia. It is warn daily by the nomads in the countryside who usually wrap it short and in a way that lets them run easily to keep up with their goats and camels. Other Djiboutians, Afar and Issa, wear the futa on weekends, or in the evening when they are relaxing and wrap it to be longer and less binding. Some Djiboutians wear them everyday. John has worn his futa several times, but is always unsure of how to keep it from falling off. So, about a month ago, we purchased a traditional money belt, made in Indonesia, to hold it up.

After our lunch, we were escorted back up to Ali and Kadiga's new house in the village. In the Afar culture, the man pays for the entire wedding. He also must furnish a new home for his new bride. In the Islamic Afar culture, a man may have as many as 4 wives, if he chooses. However, each wife must be provided her own private house. Ali has another wife, whom he married 25 years ago and older children. His first wife lives in Djibouti. Kadiga is his second wife and about 20 years his junior.

Over the past 6 months, Ali had built a wooden, 3 bedroom house for Kadiga in Dabala-Gahar. It is the only wooden house there, among the stone houses (tulos) and duboitas (rounded huts). He recently put a fence around it. The house has a large main room, with a very large bedroom off to the right(furnished with a huge bed and huge armoir) and a medium sized room with no inside door to the rest of the house. This room will be used each afternoon and evening, for mabras, the khat chewing that happens with Ali and all of his male village friends. All of the seating is traditional, large pillows on the ground around the periphery of the room. Cooking and toilet facilities are outside.

When we arrived at the home, we were escorted into the main room where Kadiga sat to greet us. She was wearing a beautiful, sweet-smelling lei, made up of hundreds of tiny white flowers from a tree blooming at this time of year in Djibouti. She presented this to me as a gift. I was very touched. Ali told me to keep it it our bedroom and it would make the room smell wonderful. In fact, our house is so small it's fragrance permeated the entire house for a whole week. It was wonderful.

Ali came in to join us with his traditional wedding futa, white shirt with white/colored shawl and crooked cane. We sat together on the pillows while well wishers came to pay their respects, always first greeting the groom and then the rest of us. They brought small gifts of more Khat and we presented Kadiga with some perfume. Traditionally, there are no wedding presents given to the wedding couple. Although, a small gift just for the woman is appreciated.

For three days before the wedding, the Afar bride is doted over by her female family and friends. They oil her body, cover her with lovely henna artwork, cover her in perfume and prepare her for the wedding. After the wedding, the bride and groom do not live together in their new house for three days. This is the Afar tradition.

The pictures above: Ali and Kadiga's new home; John, Ali, Kadiga and Ann in this new home; henna artwork on one of Kadiga's arms; Kadiga holding court in her new home; our lunch table at the Ghoubet; Futa tieing lesson for John with Samuel as the model.

Lac Abbe' - Djibouti

Last weekend, John and I left our compound at Lac Assal and drove an hour east to the town of Dikhil. We stayed overnight at a little motel, La Palmerie. There we spent early evening outside under the trees watching one of the employees filling containers (plastic bags and rinsed out plastic water bottles)with fresh cows milk. He explained that the milk was from 30 cows kept nearby. Villagers streamed into the courtyard between 5 and 6 pm to purchase the milk. Old men came with their grandsons, young girls came with their mothers and friends. Three small boys came with their crate and took away about 8 bottles to sell elsewhere in town.

The next morning, we set off for Lac Abbe' after breakfast with a guide arranged by the brother of one of our employees. You definitely need a guide to get to the lake. There are no signs, multiple roads splay out and you have no idea which way to go. The drive took over two hours, some of which was pretty rough. You also need a guide because once you get anywhere near the edge of the lake, you need to know when to stop. The soft mud/sand can suck you and your vehicle up to the windows and digging out could take a lifetime. On our way out to the lake, we encountered a number of adobe houses. They are unusual sight in Djibouti. So, there must be some good clay for building in this area.

Our guide, Mohammed, took us to one of the encampements near the Lake. You can see a picture above of the stone huts with pointed tops. Several of our friends have stayed overnight here before sleeping on cots inside the huts. Looking out from the encampment over the stone walls you can see the many tufas arrizing from the surface around the lake. Many people love to be there at dawn, when the sun rises just behind the tufas. This is when Lac Abbe' takes on a magical quality. The entire setting reminded me of a mix between Mono Lake, CA with its tufas (although many less that Lac Abbe') and the other worldliness look of Monument Valley.

We made it to Lac Abbe' at midday and it was beginning to be very hot. We stopped some distance from the lake and were really not prepared to walk all the way to the lake in the midday heat. We walked a short distance and then turned back. By that time, we had taken on two extra passengers, an old man who lived at Lac Abbee and who took John to see his donkey stable and a younger man needing a ride out of the area. Because it was so hot, we never made it to the waters edge to see the large number of flamingos that use Lac Abbe' as a flyway this time of year. Darn. We will have to come back in the winter when the weather is cooler and stay overnight to watch the sunrise and hike to the water's edge.

Surrounding the lake are many hot springs that spurt up like geysers. The water is so hot that a military man not long ago tried to jump one of the springs, slipped and received severe burns to his legs. He had to be helicoptered out. We came across one large hole in the earth, where a vehicle was stuck not long ago. Some of the hot springs run a ways and cool off enough to provide water for animals to drink and to grow grass as one of the pictures shows. We saw many healthy, plump donkeys grazing out in this amazing land.

OBOCK AND LA FORET DU DAY

Just had a great 3 day weekend with our friends, Wanda Wood and Bill Damour, from the American Embassy. They drove from Djibouti City to Lac Assal on Thursday afternoon to meet us. Then, we all climbed into our newest Hilux Toyota 4-wheel drive truck and drove up to Tadjoura, about an hour from our compound along the Djibouti coast. We stayed overnight at Le Gulf, a little motel like place with awful beds, but great food (mussels and wonderful fresh fish, caught daily just off their back porch.) On Friday we drove up further along the coast to the small town of Obock. On the road to Obock the geography changed. No longer were we in lava rock country. Instead the cliffs on the inland side were made of ancient coral and the ocean side of the road was flat with long extended beaches. John and I talked about the beautiful coral faced buildings that are still standing in Djibouti City. Now, they tell us they are not allowed to use the old coral in this way.

When we got to Obock, we checked into the Le Mer Rouge, a really lovely place right on the ocean. They have many little muraled bungalows on the beach and up in the courtyard area. There were 4 attached bungalows on the bluff, overlooking the ocean with little front porches. We took two of them side by side. The beds were very comfortable, the food not so good. But the ambience and staff was great! I definitely want to go back there again when it is cooler. We snorkeled in the ocean and just lounged in the water for several hours in the later afternoon. It was great.

Then on Saturday morning, we drove back along the coast and then up, up, up through the mountains away from the coast to Mt. Day – what a spectacular view. There we saw the La Foret Du Day (The Forest at Mt. Day). Once a lush ancient forest, it now lies dead or dying. Changes in the weather, they say turned this once lovely forest into fallen, bare-leafed trees. An expensive replanting program will soon be underway to try and restore its beauty. We were able to see the President’s big KHAT (legal drug in Djibouti) farm through the guarded fences. But, he was also growing bananas, coffee beans, hollyhocks and figs. We also saw a number of little home gardens on our way up. One of our employees has a little family farm there where he grows tomatoes, onions, potatoes, corn and carrots. He brings us fresh veggies every few weeks. It is much cooler and moister up there.

Then, when we arrived back at the compound at around 1:30 Saturday afternoon, our wonderful chef, Ali, had a full 3 course meal set with while table linens we had brought him back from the US waiting for us. Were we all gratefully surprised. Our guests were really impressed and told us they were going to steal him away for the US Ambassador. We told them, absolutely not. We might, however, be willing to lend him for a special meal. But, that was all.

The pictures above: The coral cliffs on the way to Obock; goat with a mottled coat-one of the most unusual goat colorings we have seen; our traveling companions, Bill and Wanda; a muraled hut at La Mer Rouge.

FLOODING IN THE DJIBOUTI COUNTRYSIDE

Last night it rained a little at our house in the Salt Investment compound, located above the Goubet near Lac Assal. I thought I heard thunder in the night. And this morning it began raining a lot. So, much, in fact that the rain leaked through our windows flooding part of our tile floors. A lake quickly formed outside our front door. We were leaving the compound and driving back to Djibouti City for the weekend and heard that the road was covered with water at Karta, a small village about 20 miles from the compound on the way to town.

We left about an hour earlier than expected and when we reached Karta, a low area in the road was covered with rushing muddy water. Our chef, Ali, is pictured standing in front of the racing water. Cars, trucks and minibuses were backed up waiting for the water to recede. But, the rain kept coming. One foolish driver decided to brave the current and was swept off the road and down the streambed. He was finally pushed to safety. Only the large tanker trucks and military carriers could get through. We all stood out in the pouring rain, soaked to the bone watching and waiting for the water to recede. Our clothing dried quickly in the warm air once we got back into the truck and were on our way. About an hour later, the water had slowed down and was low enough for our 4-wheel drive Toyota Hilux truck to get across. But, for the rest of our journey, we saw vast flooding in all the lowlying areas, along the roadside. We saw little waterfalls coming down the mountainsides and in one area, we came across a powerfull waterfall careening over a cliff down into a wadie (wash). The last picture shows our colleague, Mirgan, standing in front of this gorgeous waterfall.

Tonight, we had planned to play some night golf with some other Rotarians on our all sand golf course just outside of town. However, it has been cancelled since there is 30 cm of water on the course!!! Rain, Rain everywhere. These past two years have seen a remarkable amount of rain in Djibouti. Prior to 2009, there were three years of total drought - not a drop of rain. What a change! Too bad the rain comes in such powerful downpours, floods the land, and cannot be harnassed. There is so much silt in the floodwaters that dams cannot even be built to catch this precious of all life giving commodities for the residents of Djibouti.

ROTARY WATER FILTER PROJECT

Below is a revised press release Ann wrote about the water filter project she instigated in Djibouti with the help of Rotary:

"On January 29,2010 we were all honored to be part of a joint project between the Rotary Club of Djibouti, the Poulsbo-North Kitsap Rotary Club of Poulsbo, Washington, USA and Rotary International District 5020. These Rotary Clubs have together raised DJF 1.785 000 ($10,000)which will be donated to UNICEF to help defray the cost of water filters for the residents of the Lac Assal area. With the additional private donations from two individual US Rotarians, we were able to distribut 152 water filters to families from Laita and Dabale-Gahar, Djibouti. Those most vulnerable, families with children under five, pregnant women and the elderly were given priority.

This water filter project is being carried out with the help and coordination of UNICEF, Salt Investment and the Ministries of Health and Agriculture. Salt Investment is donating storage for all of UNICEF’s water filters and Mohammed Noor of the Health Ministry and Abdallah Watta of the Agricultural Ministry are providing the community organization and training.

The objective of the project is to reduce water borne illness, especially abdominal parasites in children, which is rampant in this area. This project is, in fact, a small part of an overall hygiene, sanitation and environmental project that Salt Investment is instigating for the entire Lac Assal region with the guidance and help of UNICEF. It is our goal to ensure that this project is sustainable and will expand to all families within the region.

We understand that the major problems to be solved in this area are infrastructure and the availability of water. To this end, Salt Investment and the Rotary Club of Djibouti are working together with ADDS, the government ministries, UNICEF, Inchscape, and some international foundations to develop infrastructure and a sustainable water source for the region.

We are grateful for the full cooperation of the village elders and leaders who have followed through with their commitments and we look forward to more projects which will improve the lives of the residents of the Lac Assal region."

The pictures show some of the over 150 families (mostly women) that gathered to receive the water filters, the boxed water filters waiting distribution, and two weeks later, one of the water filters in the home of one of the local residents.

WINTER IN DJIBOUTI

Winter in Djibouti is a novel concept. It begins in October and lasts until April. The days are a crisp 85-90 degrees and the evenings get down to a chilling 80 degrees. Last night it rained at Lac Assal. This is the first rain since October. And, the temperature dipped down to a bone-chilling 74 degrees.

The Djiboutians constantly complain about the cold and wear coats, sweatshirts, even down filled jackets with fur collars during the day. And, are freezing at night. Even the Djiboutian women wear sweatshirts with hoods over their traditional clothing in the evenings and dress in multiple layers during the day.

The winters tend to have a lot more wind at our compound at Lac Assal. Winter is also the time for mosquitos in Djibouti City. For some reason, probably the wind, we don't see mosquitos at our compound, even in the winter. The mosquitos are dangerous and I have to wear repellent in the evenings when we are in Djibouti City. One of our Superintendents is very ill right now with Dengue fever which is rare in Djibouti. It is transmitted by a special kind of mosquito and there is no cure. Just symptom relief.

John and I are in heaven here in the winter. We consider the weather balmy and beautiful. We wear our shirtsleeves and sandles day and night, appreciating the cool-down in the evenings as just right. I guess it is all relative. With summers here in the 110-115 range and humid in Djibouti City, winter is a welcome respite for us. I know several Rotarians, who having come here to visit during the winter months, made the decision to permanently move to Djibouti. Now, they make sure they spend their summers elsewhere.