Zanzibar mini vacation

We were suppose to be on a flight at 2am on Thursday morning, but it didn't show up.  Air Canada doesn't know why and Turkish Airline was no help (we were the only people in the airport). . .Since we are stuck in Arusha for an extra day I figured I might as well put up a few more photos:)

Friday May 23rd until Tuesday we stayed in Zanzibar Tanzania. The first day and night we spent in Stone Town.  It was so completely different then Arusha.  It is much more laid back, not nearly as many people and they are much less pushy about getting you to buy their souvenir or ride in their taxis.

When we first arrived we took a walking tour for about 2 hours (it covered most of Stone Town which is a small area).  Our tour guide, Said, was fantastic.  He was very knowledgeable.  Mom really enjoyed learning about the history of the town, and I thought all of the buildings and road ways were neat.  Many of the roads are not much more then 6 feet across. The architecture is amazing.  Since Zanzibar had been "taken over" by so many different countries, the architecture varies.  You see the Arab and Indian influences the most.  The motorcycles and bicycles are allowed on the narrow roads, but the cars, tucks and vans have to stay to the larger roads which surround the centre of the town.  The the roads feel much safer than Arusha, much less busy.

I put in a few pictures of our hotel, and buildings/ streets from our tour.

This is the room with the "view" that Mom paid extra for.  Needless to say we thought it would be a much different view.  It was very noisy in the morning as this used this road to transport the ship containers across town from the port.

Our hotel, the second balcony was our room for the night.

I'm not sure in Canada we would be allowed to support our building this way. . .

We went through a market, including a huge fish section.  I forgot to take any pictures when we were in the center of it; I think I was focusing too much on not being grossed out by the amount of dead fish staring at me.  (There was also a live chicken market apparently, but I pre-warned the tour guide that taking me to a market full of birds was not a good idea)

After the Friday night we headed over to our beach resort, it was beautiful!  The pictures below is of the boat we took out to swim with the dolphins.  We didn't get any actual pictures of the dolphins:( It was extremely wavy). We originally had a hard time locating the Dolphins.  We were heading back towards shore when our guide got a phone call from a fisherman who he had spoken to earlier.  The fisherman told our guide, they had spotted the Dolphins, so we headed back out .   The waves were huge, especially for our little boat, you had to hold on to your seat so you wouldn't fall off.  At this point I discovered I apparently get sick sick so I focused on not being sick instead of taking pictures. 

We did get to jump in and swim with the dolphins though.  Mom went twice and I went once, it was amazing!  You jump in right in front of where they are swimming and then they all swim down underneath you.  There was about 30 dolphins swimming directly underneath us as we watched!  Mom said she tried to swim down and touch one but they just swam deeper.  We think if we had seen them earlier and had more time to swim we probably would have been able to get closer, either way it was still outstanding!

We ended off our swimming with a couple jelly fish stings, but they were just little ones.  Overall it was a lot of fun. 

The view from our room and the pool was gorgeous:)

This man came to talk to us during our little beach photo shoot to show us the fish. .animal. .sea creature. . .? He had caught.  We tried to ask what it was but he spoke Swahili and we speak English so there was a little language barrier.  We managed to understand that he just caught it an was going to eat it (I stuck with my chicken and rice vs the mystery sea food).

Mom is still working on those jumping pictures, almost perfected them (just working on our facial expressions now. . . ;)

xo Emma and Julia

Time to say Goodbye to our children at the Orphanage :(

We leave Arusha tonight on our flights home so we thought we would try to get up at least one more blog, about the children at our orphanage.

The time has flown by so quickly.  Our routine of going to the Orphanage to be with the children each day had become familiar and comfortable.  The Children have taught us so much. Last week was our last day at the orphanage and we had to say goodbye

We arranged to have a little party lunch, since it is was our last day.   We saw the children have porridge for lunch one day, but not like we have at home, it is thinner and they drank it from of a cup.  Another  day we saw the House Mama burning the feathers off one of her chickens that they had just slaughtered so we know they eat chicken as well, just not a lot of it.  We brought bananas and cookies for snacks throughout our weeks here.  It is fun to watch the children take apart a cremed filled cookie just as the kids at home take apart an oreo cookie.

On our last day we brought peanut butter and banana sandwhiches, fruit juice, cookies and lolly pops.  Some of the kids don't know how to eat a sandwhich they pull them apart, dunk them in their juice, or pull off the banana pieces.

Every day when we have left before we have had said Kesho (tomorrow), on our last day we used the word "Kwa Heri" for good bye.  Aichi, our House Manager wrote us a note in Swahili so the Mama who owns the orphanage could tell the children how much we have enjoyed getting to know them and thanking them for sharing their time with us.  The note also explains we have to go back to our family in Canada.

We brought a world map for the classroom and have showed them where we live and where Tanzania is located.  These kids really only travel back and forth to school (the younger ones don't even go to school) so I believe the geographical distance between us is lost of them.

Saying good bye was very sad for Emma and I.  It is different for these children, volunteers popping into their lives for 3 weeks or 3 months is a way of life for them.  They take the news well as I am sure they knew it was coming.  

After Mama read the note, we had them line up for a picture.  Mama must have explained it is a party because they start singing Happy Birthday!!  It was very sweet.

They ate, we played frisbee, skipped, chased balls, pushed them on the swings, trying not to think about the fact this will be the last time we see them.

Here are some pictures of the children throughout our time at the orphanage

xo Julia and Emma