Zanzabar with pictures

Ok, well first I have something else to show.  I captured this from Today's newspaper.  This absolutely supports the initiative in our project that calls for more e-learning (learning over the web). 

We went to Zanzibar and I have so much to tell and so this is all out of order, but with the variable internet access we have I thought I would just toss it out as I found it.  Everyone  was making a big fuss around this next place.  Mercury House.  I had no idea.  But, the lead singer for Queen lived here. 

This next photo is in Stone Town .  Lots of stone buildings and alleys like this one.  Very interesting to walk through and there are tons of little shops not wider than two small closets. 

And we visited an old church and a slave holding center.  This truly was the most impactful thing to me that I have seen.  70 slaves were kept in here at one time and the two air slots you see are all they had.I am standing in the door taking this picture.

 

In this next picture you can get an idea of the size.  And all the slaves were up on the upper section, not where Maria is standing, but rather up on top of the cement.  You barely have room to sit,  The part where her legs are seen was where slaves would go to the bathroom.  This makes you think.  While Maria is smiling in this picture, not one of us was smiling when we entered the two room like this. 

Afterwards, I was talking to Ishmael and he said that many Africans that live in Zanzibar will not go to the beach because they do not want to be around white people that enslaved them, and they teach this to their children.  I asked a question about how slave traders got their slaves.   He said that tribal chiefs often sold their own people and when one tribe conquered another, they would sell their enemies.  I just shook my head.

This is a Memory for the Slaves.  

Now, lets change the tone.

Went to the beach.  Part of our reward for making it through immigration.  Impressive.  Look at the color of this water.

 Agusto ,  Ishmael - our guide - a really cool dude,  Shaun, and Ross.  With very sharp jagged coral behind us.  

 And everywhere we stopped are these painting shops.  Very neat.  I bought one, but not here. Notice the roofs of leaves in the background.  I never knew that these roofs last about 25 years.  That is really amazing. 

 And back to arrival, the bus took us most of the way and we walked through the village.  The road was incredibly bumpy.  "You can't even imagine", as Philip would say.  Take the worst nightmare of a bad road and triple it.  We only bottomed out once, but there were some interesting moments.  And you feel like your insides have been shaken a little too much. 

And because you appreciate these, this is the generator that runs the hotel when the power goes off, which was only a few times.

 And this was in a night market.  They were making sugar cane, spinning the wheel by hand and squeezing the juice out of canes.  Looked like hard work. 

 And the food.  hundreds of tables laid out with tons of food. 

 and in the market, you get to mingle with a few of your best friends.. 

 and more of them.

Oh, and while I am thinking about it,  On the way home there was a sign in the airport warning people to wash their hands and it had a list of when .  One of them was when "your child has defected".   I guess you just wash your hands of them as the saying goes.