Travelblog by Jurgita and Thomas

As we have written earlier there is a major difference between high tide and low tide here on Zanzibar. It can be up to four or five meters difference in just six hours.

That means that we now and then have to walk 200 meters from the beach to where the water begins, and maybe 300 meters more if we want to find water deep enough to swim. Normally we check the tidal before we go to Mbweni ruins beach close to Haukeland house. When it’s high-tide the area is really nice and you can jump to the sea and swim as much as you want.

This coral stone is under water when its high tide.

No jumping from the pier, please!

However, we were curious to see what’s there under water where swim. Because when the water disappears, sometimes the living creatures are left behind. Actually a lot of them from colorful sea-stars, to crabs, sea-worms, shells, sea-urchins and snakes, some live in the sand; others are just waiting for the water to come back.

So we checked the tidal-water, took our camera and went there when the tide was low. Our goal was to take pictures of all living features we found on our trip. And we were so amazed of what we saw, that we’ve been doing it several times in other beaches too. Jurgita fell in love with sea-stars, so we go to visit them whenever we can (red are the favorite ones).

The advice is to always look where you put your foot and remember to use plastic-shoes.

Here are the pictures we took!

A half meter long plant-eating seaworm.

Its alive and moving. But we don´t know what this slimy blue animal is.

A crab to big to hide in his shellhouse.

Sea-urchins. Don´t step on them.

We found many of these shells. Anyone know what they are?

Jurgitas favourite: Red sea-stars!

Beautiful orange seastar.

Seastars come in all kind of colours.

A black and white snake looking for food.

How should we describe the Zanzibarian cuisine? We’d say it’s a mixture of Arabic, Indian and British food. From spicy curry-courses (chicken, fish or meat), potatoes (chicken, meat or fish) in coconut sauce, different types of flatbread (chapati), great seafood and so much more! And we are trying it all (especially Jurgita).

Kingfish wrapped in banana leaf

Chapati (flat bread) with raita

Mbatata za nazi (potatoes in coconut-sauce cooked with chicken)

For lunch it’s popular to have different types of fried food, like samosa (fried bread filled with meat or vegetables), meatballs (fried of course), fried potato-ball with spices and egg, fried spring roll with fish or vegetables. And of course sweet rice-pancake which is one of our favorites. In other words, it’s high-carbo food.

Rice, papayasalad, goat and vegetable currys

Lunch at the hospital. (Pancake, samosa and other local dishes)

Pancakes filled with egg and spinach. Plus coffee with spice.

We like local food, but sometimes we do have pizza too. Its Ok, isn’t it? Other times we go completely crazy having hamburger with fries!

No comments…!

At home we make a lot of salads, soups, pasta with fresh pesto, minced meet, chicken and mashed potatoes, fruit salads, etc.

And at nights we dream about taco, brown cheese, Norwegian white cheese, pizza Grandiosa and smoked lamb ribs…

Bon appetite!

Endless sand and crystal clear water in Paje, southwest on Zanzibar island.

Paje is the second beach-destination we have visited on Zanzibar. It’s located on the southwest side of the island, about one hour drive from Haukeland house. Just as Kendwa up north, it is absolutely stunning – but so different!

While there is almost no difference if it’s low- or high tide in Kendwa, it’s huge difference in Paje. And sometimes you have to walk for more than one hour to reach the water that is deep enough to swim. When it is high tide, the water is coming almost all the way up to the hotel we stayed at.

But walking to the deep and 32 degrees Celcius warm water in Paje is an adventure. You will pass many seaweed-farms where men and woman are working hard. You are also passing young kids that are using nets to catch small fish and maybe an octopus or two. On the way you also se a lot of fantastic shells, some sea stars and maybe a snake if you are lucky.

Jurgita looking at two of the many giant sea-stars that we found in Paje.

Beautiful sea-star surrounded by spiky sea urchins.

Sea-weed farms are everywhere in Paje.

If you get tired walking in the shallow water, there are small areas where you can sit down and just relax in the bathtub-hot water…

We had a fantastic weekend in Paje with 10 other Norwegians, some from Haukeland house, while other were visiting from Bergen. The weekend was spent mostly on the beach and around the swimming pool. We also attended a great beach-party where both tourists and locals were dancing all night long…

Young kids fishing in the shallow water.

Great view from our restaurant.

Palms moving in the light breeze.

Our weekend in Paje ended with an evening where we all had our dinner at the beach around a bonfire. It felt great, the food was amazing. So were the people. And when the economist Oliver (he should definitely join the Norwegian Idol!) and his brother Jon Espen started to sing and play guitar, the night continued until 02.00 making it one of the most memorable nights in Zanzibar so far.

Bonfire on the beach on our last night in Paje!

Melissa, Jurgita and Gunn-Elin at the beach in the evening.

Last week I said to our teacher Mama Anti (in Swahili): «We didn´t wake up this morning». On Wednesday I told her that “I was a car”. So yes, learning a language is fun!

It’s really good to have a teacher. She corrects us and stops/prevents us from telling people you meet strange things. I guess taxi-drivers in the town would have had a good laugh if I replied “I am a car” whenever they ask us if we need a car… well, and if I’d start my conversation telling them that I didn’t wake up this morning, there might be rumors in the town about this strange European guy.

Swahili might not be the easiest language to learn. The grammar is not so complicated but it’s a bit tricky and challenging to learn. There are nine classes with nouns (each class having singular and plural), and each class having their own near- and far- demonstratives (so it’s not only “this & these, that & those”, but there are new “this & these, that & those” for each of the nine classes. And of course they add the prefixes to the verbs so that verbs also reflect the class of the nouns… and then you also have to add the tense to the verb and at the end the result is a word that looks really different for the initial one.

So after 20 hours with Swahili lessons (2 hours x twice a week) we dear to say that Swahili is quite challenging and not so simple…

But at least I know now that I´m not a car!!!

Its quite funny to learn swahili. We have had 20 lessons so far.

Jurgita practise how to tell people what the time is.

The stories we post on our blog show how nice it is in Zanzibar. And it absolutely is!

However, not all the days and not everything is so perfect here as it might look like. We do see many things that are not ok and which are difficult to write about…

So how does an ordinary day look like?

It starts with a cold shower (as we don’t have hot water in our apartment…).

The driver drives us to the hospital. Sometimes I have lunch with my colleagues at work, sometimes with my Norwegian colleagues-neighbors-friends from the house, and sometimes I just forget I should have eaten…

At work, the internet comes and disappears several times a day. Quite often the electricity disappears too, but normally the generators switch on automatically… And if they don’t… well yes, unfortunately, the consequences might be quite severe…

After work sometimes we go to the city. I LOVE Stone Town!! It’s such a fantastic city and I still have a huge job in front of me to figure out where all the narrow streets end… Luckily Thomas is usually with me so I don’t get lost (it’s not a secret any more- I’m not so good with the directions…:). However, lately I’ve just been too tired to carry my computer, notes, etc. with me around. So I’m usually going home when the driver comes to pick us up.

I usually do some more work when I get home (especially if there is internet in the house…).

But we also go bicycling (you should see the bicycles we’re using here!), have smoothies at our favorite café in the neighborhood, go to the beach nearby or just stay at the rooftop watching the sun go down.

We try to exercise a couple of times a week, but it’s not always so easy when it’s +29 outside and +27 in the gym-room…

To sum up: compared to what we are used to at home, not everything is so idyllic and perfect here… Sometimes it’s really tough. Sometimes we feel really helpless. But life goes on and we keep working, hoping that some of the things we do here now will make a difference in the long run…

7 o´clock in the morning getting ready for work.

If we are early enough there is still food at the cafeteria at the hospital.

Bicycling to have a coffee at Tupamoja café close to Haukeland house.

No coffee.. Not only us who had a tough day.

The new Norwegian ambassador in Tanzania, Hanne-Marie Kaarstad came to Zanzibar and she also visited Mnazi Mmoja hospital and Haukeland house last week. All Norwegians working here presented their projects. Jurgita was also presenting the project she’s working on (Hospital Management), ambitions and challenges.

The ambassador also visited Haukeland House (and our apartment:) and the visit was finished with a nice dinner with local food at our rooftop.

The ambassador was clearly impressed by the work that is being done by Haukeland University Hospital in Zanzibar and she showed truly interest in the collaboration between Haukeland and Mnazi Mmoja.

A memorable day for us all!

P.S. And now we know where we’ll celebrate our National Day (17^th of May)- the embassy has invited all of us over to Dar Es Salaam (on the mainland) to celebrate.

The Norwegian ambassador, Hanne-Marie Kaarstad, visiting the largest group of Norwegians in Tanzania.

Jurgita presenting her work for the Norwegian embassy.

Visit by the ambassador in our apartment at Haukeland house.

A special day was finished with a nice dinner at our rooftop.

To those of you who thought it was sunshine all the time in Zanzibar: Nope!!! The last week we´ve felt like we were in Bergen (well, except for the temperature of course… It’s still more than 30 degrees Celsius).

November is considered as semi- rainy season, as they call it in Zanzibar. After having one month with beautiful weather, the cranes where opened exactly the 1^st of November and we had several days in a row with quite heavy rain. And when it rains here, it rains a lot!

After our Swahili-class on Wednesday we were literally forced to go to a café as it was raining so badly that we couldn’t walk (Jurgita’s computer bag started to be wet even though it was covered). Making the best out of the situation we decided to have some lunch. So we sat there and looked outside. There was a river in the street. We had to wait for a while for the rain to stop, but eventually we went out and walked in the 15-centimeter water in the streets of Stone Town.

Well, I guess we have to get used to it. The small rainy season lasts only for a month while the main rainy season starts from middle/late March till late May. We have to consider what we’ll do, but our best option might be to invest in floating madras and some umbrellas.

The local people doesn´t seem to care much about the weather.

The view from our window at Haukeland house.

Jurgita in the rivers of Stone Town/Zanzibar.

Wet season. Best to stay inside.

Dressed as Tarzan and Jane, accompanied by Cleopatra, Uma Thurman, a Zanzibarian driver and a rock-star in black we attended the Halloween party at the Mbweni ruins (an old church) about 15 minutes walk from our home this weekend.

Maybe not so scary delegation from Haukeland House, we walked in the dark to the late party at the ruins for the scary celebration.The ruins were filled with spiders, nets, ghosts and blood. There were three Freddy Mercurys (which was frightening enough), a Dracula-bride walking around and zombies everywhere.

We had a fantastic evening dancing all night long. I don´t think any of us have ever thought we would celebrate Halloween in the ruins of an old church.

Thank you so much to the organizers, The Legendary Rotary club of Zanzibar for the great event which has hopefully collected a nice amount of money to charity.

Uma Thurman, Cleopatra, Jane and Tarzan getting ready for Halloween

Be aware of the red octopus sneaking in

Jane at the Haloween-party. But where is Tarzan?

Uma, Jane and Cleopatra on the dance-floor in the ruins of a church.

Yes, we’ve started learning Swahili. We were advised to contact Mama Anti, a well-known Swahili-teacher in Zanzibar. The classroom is in a very old building in Stone Town and it would have taken us some time to find it if we went just by ourselves! We have to climb narrow and steep staircases to reach the third floor of the house where the small classroom with a table and three chairs is located. The atmosphere in the room is fascinating: open mosaic windows, the view of the roofs, sun and wind playing with our notes… It feels so peaceful there.

Mama Anti is a great and patient teacher. And when we say it’s difficult, the answer we get is «No, Swahili is easy!!!».

We go there twice a week and so far we’ve had ten hours. We have learned some greeting- phrases, some important sentences and started a little bit with grammar.

So now we practice with people in the shops and market, cafes and the people who work at Haukeland house. They are happy to speak with us, but conversations often end like “Ok, could you please say that again in English?

Baadaye!

This is our classroom where we go twice a week to learn swahili.

Our great teacher in Stone Town.

Do you understand???

The narrow door at our school. Not easy to get in.

Staircase up to the classroom.

The street where the swahili-school is.

Last Sunday we celebrated Jurgitas 34^th birthday on Kendwa beach with a nice dinner at Amani restaurant. Together with two Norwegian doctors, two economists, a journalist, a sociologist, a lawyer and Africas bravest nurse according to the magazine Tara, we had a great evening which ended with a beach-party at the hotel Kendwa Rocks.

The staff at the restaurant came out singing, dancing and with a chocolate cake that made the evening even more memorable.

On Haukeland house we celebrate everyone’s birthday, but because we were on a weekend-trip, we organized cake, ice-cream and coffee on the rooftop terrace. The celebration started at 17:00 with children singing the Norwegian version of the birthday-song and more people joined us later in the evening.

One of the biggest surprises was the birthday-cake which was designed as a door. Zanzibar is famous for its very special doors, and the cake looked fantastic! The guy who was making the cake told us: as you are celebrating your birthday in Zanzibar, it should be Zanzibar style. Besides, it has a symbolic meaning as you open the door for the new adventures…

The birthday-celebration-week finished last Saturday. So, even if we’re far away from our families and close friends, the fantastic people we’ve met here have really made it special.

Here are some pictures of the cakes and the celebration!

Jurgitas birthday cake designed as a Zanzibar traditional door.

Celebrating «Jörgita» with small cakes at Crystal restaurant.

Tasty brownie with vanilla at Amani hotel.

Jurgita at a beach party with her favorite beer; Kilimanjaro.

More cake, icecream and coffe with friends at Haukeland house.