My mates here have already been writing about what's been going on over here during the first weeks, but I guess you'd like to read some new stories, am I wrong?
First of all, I gotta say that life here in Zanzibar is not as bad as it sounds, but you have to take things easy, dip yourself into this hakuna matata mentality they all have over here, and, of course, realize that you're not in Europe anymore, you're in Africa now, and that everything here is different.
Needless to say, there are lots of handicaps that make any research here even more complicated than usual… from arranging a meeting with your supervisor, to get hold of some sampling gear, everything can take what it feels like forever. But as one of our supervisors told us after one of our days of desperation for not being able to get things on time: "if ecological field studies in a developing country were easy, everybody would be doing them". So I guess we just have to try our best, and feel lucky for having this amazing opportunity!
But despite all the chaos we're encountering so far regarding our project, these last week we've finally got some time to chill, relax, and enjoy life in Zanzibar as any other tourist.
Last Monday we left Nungwi, and we finally moved to our apartment in Stone Town, even though it's not our real apartment, just a arrangement until the 27th when the girls staying in our apartment leave. By the way, those two girls are also Swedish and I already knew them from before; what a small world! (ok, maybe not such a big coincidence considering that I already knew one of them was coming…).
Anyway... what was I saying? Ah, yes, moving to town… Well, we have been here for more than a week now, and I can assure you that it has made a huge difference for us! Now we finally have a place we can call home, a place on our own, where we can spend the time doing whatever we want.
Living in town also have some other advantages, like having more than one shop where to buy food or being able to go to the ATM any time you need more money (if any of the six ATMS in town works of course...). Here there are also lots of great bars and restaurants where one can have a drink or a meal for a pretty fair price while enjoying an amazing view of the bay. One of those places is the Africa House, a fancy hotel located only 4 minutes away from our apartment and where, in a terrance on the second floor, they have the Sunset Bar with lovely views, great service and drinks served in a coconut! (we still have to try those though…). We have decided that the Africa House is the place where we'll have all our meetings from now on; because, why would you want to discuss about work at home or at the office when you can do it sitting on a comfy couch, contemplating the sea, and with a waiter coming to your table once every 30 minutes to bring you a new drink? But in case you are more up in the mood for a Friday night out, let's go to Livingstone's! Awesome bar by the beach, where one can sit outside listening to the murmur of the waves and have a drink, or go inside where locals and wazungu chat a dance together in a fun mixed atmosphere.
Shopping is one of the other things that we are quite enjoying from being in town. So many shops, so many cool things! But we should be careful and try to save some money, and also, we still have about 2 more months here... so for the moment we just bought some clothes we needed (or wanted). Souvenir shopping will be done later on, although there are so many things I want that I have no idea how will I manage to fit any stuff in my rucksack! Also, we still need to improve our haggle skills before we dare to buy in any of these little shops… one should never pay what they actually ask for!
And I think that's all for the moment. Tomorrow we are moving to the new apartment, and a new weekend is almost here! Unfortunately our project is not going much better for now, so wish us best luck! Hopefully next spring tide will be able to finally do some proper sampling.
We´ll be back soon with more news!
Elisa.
PD: sorry there're not many photos in this post, but we haven't taken that many here in Stone Town yet… we'll post some pictures soon :)
For the moment, you can check out my photos on Flickr if you like, or read some more stories in my blog (sorry it's in Spanish!)
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