Vacation

Arriving back in Tanzania after being in the states was accompanied by whirlwind of thoughts and emotions.  It was hot, humid, the shuttle cab driver was lost and late, Steve had been waiting for my flight to get in and slept at the airport overnight…yes, talk about a cultural whiplash!  Luckily, Steve and I made sure to ease our way back into Tanzania, so I gave myself an early birthday present to stay at a safi hotel that night before we headed to Mafia Island to swim with whale sharks!!
This was leg two of my vacation.
Mafia Island is the southern island off the coast of Tanzania.  There are two main ways to get there: 1) by cargo boat/ship which takes about 4-5 hours of rocky current which is cheap (about $20) and you have to leave from a small town outside of Dar, and 2) by plane which takes 1-2 hours from an airport in Dar to an airport in Mafia for $120 and was only a 20-minute walk from our guest lodge (Whale Shark Lodge).  We definitely opted to take the flight, which I am now very thankful for because we were only there for a couple of days and the next morning we were going snorkeling with whale sharks.  I wanted to be primed and healthy when we swam with whale sharks and not recovering from a bumpy, seasick ride.

Whale sharks, unlike their name, are not whales.  They are sharks, which are fish - the world’s largest fish!  They are filter feeders, which means they eat only plankton and not fish (or humans), which makes them very safe to swim with.  Their mouths are very wide (about 1.5 meters), which makes it look like they are constantly smiling and reminds me of the Pokemon, Ditto.  Adult whale sharks are on average about 10 meters in length and weigh about 9 tonnes (20,000 lbs.) – WOW!!!  Each whale shark also has a different and distinct pattern of spots (like a fingerprint), which some researchers are starting to use to keep track of migratory patterns instead of the usual tagging.  In Tanzania, Mafia Island is the only place you can find them.  They tend to be in Mafia during the months of November to January.  Whale sharks also have photoreceptors, notably at their heads, so the guides told us to keep our distance from both the head and tail when we swim with them.  If you get too close, they may get spooked and swim into deeper water, or they could smack you with their tail fin, which is very strong.


Steve and I were incredibly lucky on our trip because there was only one other person at our lodge and he didn’t want to snorkel, so it was like we had our own private whale shark boat.  Once we left the beach, the guides gave us a very brief introduction and some guidelines about the whale sharks and where not to swim, had us try on snorkels and flippers, and asked if we knew how to snorkel.  I said I did and Steve said he had once before, and they said okay.  Steve had told me earlier that he was a little nervous because he didn’t have the best experience the first time, so I told him that I would help him out once we got in the water.  We got to the main area where there had been a sighting and found another boat/tour group (way more expensive than ours) there, and before we knew it, they told us to jump in the water, practically without any warning!  I saw the whale sharks and started swimming towards them, but was really worried about Steve so I looked back and tried to help him out but I couldn’t find him until a few moments.  Those few moments were all it took to make me swallow a few large gulps of sea water.  Once I caught sight of him, I looked back toward the whale shark, and it had swum away, so we swam back to the boat and went on to following it.  When we were back on board, I told him I freaked out about where he was and if he was okay, but he surprised me by saying that this was actually less nerve-racking than the first time, which I thought was peculiar because he was just in still, clear water.  I guess that works for him, but I wish I’d known or else I wouldn’t have swallowed so much water.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t swum in ages anyway so I was exhausted just after the first jump, and the sea water started making me feel seasick.  I definitely wanted to go back in, because I still hadn’t gotten a good look yet, but I couldn’t bear swimming yet.  After a few minutes of drinking water and concentrating on breathing, we sighted another one and I was ready to go back in this time.  We were both prepared this time, jumped in swiftly, and started swimming immediately without taking our faces out of the water.
This time I got an amazing view of it and IT WAS HUGE!  It’s spots were so cool and it’s mouth was almost as wide as my body was long!  They swim very slowly, but it was still a feat trying to keep up with them!  Once they got too far out, we hopped back in the boat and went to another location.  The morning kept going like so for about 3-4 hours and once we had our fill, we went back to the shore.  I couldn’t go in as much as Steve did because of my initial jump and stomach full of sea water, but I still got quite a few good jumps in!  I also got some awesome pictures, thanks to my underwater camera and the help of one of the guides.  We never got pictures of us directly with the whale sharks, but it was still awesome!  I even swam by a jellyfish once.  Despite the low visibility due to the concentration of plankton in the water and my on/off energy level, I had so much fun and was so glad Steve had such a blast!!!  :D
We got back to the lodge, paid the guide our 40,000 Tsh. (about $25) per person, and went back to shower.  Usually people have to pay over $50 per person for going out to swim with the whale sharks, and apparently the other boat we saw charged $100 per head, so needless to say, it was a steal for us!!  That evening we paid for our two nights and meals, and we figured that our total Mafia trip minus the flight was less than $80 per person for everything, including transportation from the airport to the lodge and a bajaji to and from town.  A true Peace Corps vacation!
From Mafia Island, we took a slight detour to Zanzibar before heading back to Dar.  We met up with a few Baby Eds, whose sites are on the large island, and spent a couple of nights in Stonetown.  Per suggestions from other PCVs, we stayed at an apartment owned by a Tanzanian that he rents out for tourists for only 24,000 Tsh. or $15 per person per night!  It was at a great location, included a plentiful breakfast of fruit and toast with peanut butter, and each room had a working fan and self-contained bathroom and shower!  If I ever go back, I will definitely call James up again!  He also put us in contact with the spice tour guides.
While Mafia Island is still like Tanzania, Zanzibar is like you are stepping into a different world, let alone an island!  The architecture is entirely different, with a more Islamic and Western feel to it since the island’s majority is Islamic, and Stonetown is a hot tourist destination.  I have never seen so many tourists in one place before.  There seemed to almost be more tourists than Zanzibarians every where we walked!  Of course, that also meant prices were much higher, though because Steve and I spoke Swahili, we were definitely less hassled and we got better prices for everything.  We looked like tourists, for once, but everyone was so much more friendly to us than any other Tanzanian stranger in Tanganyika (continental Tanzania).
The first full day we were there, we went on the spice tour (only $15 per person), which included going to a spice farm, trying out the different spices and fruits while on the walking tour, getting accessorized by the guides with banana leaf crafts (for free), having the opportunity to buy spices, getting fed a wholesome meal, going to the slave trade caves, and going to a private beach for a quick swim!  Best $15 I have spent yet!  It truly felt like a vacation for the first time in forever because we were actually letting ourselves be tourists for once!  The best part of it all was getting to speak Swahili with every guide, because no one else on the tour could.  As we were walking through the spice farm, the whispers of us knowing Swahili spread like wildfire and soon we had every guide come and greet us.  They loved it, and so did we!  Haha.

Steve and I also wanted to take advantage of being by the ocean as much as possible, so we ate street seafood and chicken shwarma at Forodhani Gardens both nights we were there.  Many volunteers have had very bad experiences with street food, but we knew we would be there for a couple of days so we tried our luck the first night, and it was worth it!  It was so good and so cheap, we made sure that our food was cooked and heated properly, and neither of us got sick the entire time we were there!  We had shrimp, tuna, barracuda, spiced lobster, swordfish, chicken shwarma, sugar cane juice, and Zanzibar pizza over the two nights.  SO GOOD!

Forodhani Gardens and Zanzibar Pizza (Dessert style)

After our vacation of being an ish-tourist on two islands, we took a ferry back to Dar from Zanzibar, and I spent my quarter century birthday with Steve, Fo, and Nick!  It was technically my birthday eve, but the next day Steve and I had to go to Kurasini Centre again for training, so we celebrated it on the rooftop of Holiday Inn eating sushi!!!  It was so sweet, and Steve even surprised me and told the waitress that it was my birthday, so we got a free slice of cake with a candle!  ;D  It was positively scrumptious!

The next afternoon, Steve and I got a ride from Peace Corps to Kurasini Centre from the PC office and we got to work on our Shika sessions for the Baby Eds’ and their counterparts’ EST (Early Service Training).  Remember my IST (In-Service Training) that I had in Morogoro the December of 2013?  This is the same thing but for their Ed class.
This would be our last official time for all of the Shika Team (Ryan, Willie, Steve, Ben, and I) being together doing a training, so we wanted it to go off with a bang!  We all got there a couple of days before our day of Shika sessions to prepare, and we had a great presentation in store for them.  This time, the theme was a game show/combination of many game shows –it was to be called, “Whose Lab is it Anyway?”  Our sessions would mainly be the same, but there would be a twist because each session would be a different round.  There would be approximately three teams for each subject, one coach/judge for each subject (Steve – Math, Belle – Chemistry, Willie – Physics, Ryan – Biology), Ben would be the host of the show, and there would be three rounds.  But most importantly, there would be an exciting introduction to the show, which we once again spent most of our time preparing.  Willie created a hydraulics contraption using syringes and IV tubing to synchronize explosions and fire to Fall Out Boy’s “Light ‘em Up”, while he hid under a table.  I was in charge of the music and sound effects for the entire show

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As for the actual sessions, Round 1 would be the usual Box of Fun where each team, which consisted of both PCVs and counterparts, would have to make a teaching aid out of locally available science materials, using each respective coach’s subject, present it in two minutes, and each coach would choose one team to move on to the next round.  The coaching part of this resembled The Voice.  Round 2 would be the winning teams from each subject (four total teams) now having to teach a more complex, quick lesson to the audience and the judges (four judges), this time using anything from our Shika supplies.  After each presentation, each judge would comment on the team’s performance, and they would be scored.  This was the American Idol part of the game show, so I pulled out my British accent for this bit.  Although I was technically the Brit, Steve was the Simon with his tough scoring.  After all teams presented and scores were given out, the top two teams would move on to Round 3.  Round 3 originally was supposed to include the two teams going to a duka with a Peace Corps car and driver to buy what they could using only 5,000 Tsh. to make and teach an activity to the judges to do; however, the PC car never came and we had to get on with the show.  Instead, we gave them a limited list of things they could use, I tried to keep it in the probable price range, and they presented their activity to the audience while using the judges as the students.  This time, the audience voted for the winner!  It was all in all a great plan and incredibly fun to be a part of, but I think the five of us were still hoping it was going to be even bigger.
While the teams that continued on to Round 2 and Round 3 were preparing for their presentations, the rest of the group had a quick NECTA practical lesson with Ben and Ryan in Round 2 and did a science competition with Steve in Round 3.  There were a lot of bodies to keep track of all at once, but we did have more Shika members this time around.  Although it was A LOT of work that day, I think we pulled it off and everyone, PCVs and counterparts alike, enjoyed the theatrical value if not for the actual sessions.
It was kind of bittersweet to do our last session together as a Shika unit.  I cannot describe how much I love working with this specific group, and all of us just played off of each other so seamlessly, it will be hard to finally let go…but when it does, our time will have been glorious.