Michamvi to Stone Town, Zanzibar: Goodbye Full Package

Michamvi to Stone Town, Zanzibar: Goodbye Full Package.
Dec 26

If you want to save money when you travel, end up in a fling with an attractive woman who runs a restaurant.  That will really take care of some costs!  If she has a washing machine, you have basically achieved platinum status.  I have had a blast with this Ms. Tanzanian Pageant and she sure has taken care of me.  She did not even let me buy a single drink for her the entire time I was with her.  An independent and beautiful woman…

Just showing up here, not knowing where I was going, and not having any plan or place to stay sure worked well here…

Goodbye to a wonderful time/full package.

It is always tough to leave a great girl behind.  One would think that after doing it for years that it would get easier, and I guess it does a little, but it still always feels empty somehow…

It is amazing though how sometimes one summons life to become what they want for a time.  I was telling friends just before I came to Africa that I really needed a brief girlfriend to take care of me and make me feel good for a week or two.  I landed in Africa and a fantastic woman seemed to be waiting for me to arrive.  The full package luck of life!

I made my goodbyes to Ms. Tanzanian Pageant and headed off to catch a dola-dola to take me from Michamvi to Stone Town.  The dola-dola was so run down that the man controlling the side door to let people on and off of the bus had to beat the hell out of the door to make it open.  Then as we from Michamvi to Stone Town, the walls of the bus/van would bulge our as we went over pot-holes and bumps.  I have never been in a vehicle before where I wondered if we hit a jarring hole that the vehicle might actually split in two…  It took about three hours from the time I said goodbye to her until I arrived from Michamvi to Stone Town.  As soon as I got off the dola-dola a tout was all over me:
-Where are you going?
-Over here.
-You need a dola-dola?
-Nope.
-You need a taxi?
-I am fine.  I know what I am doing.
-You need a cheap room?
-I am fine.  I do not need any help.
-Fuck you then…  (storms off).

Sometimes it drives you crazy.  I did not approach him.  I was not looking for his help.  I did not make eye contact.  And when he figured out that he was not going to be able to cheat me out of money somehow he told me to fuck off.  I am not sure how that is justifiable, but that is how it goes sometimes.

This says, ;A widow is never hungry.’

My German friend Marc, who dates Ms. Tanzanian Pageant’s sister came to pick me up from the center of town.  Marc has been here for a couple of years and drives like a local…pure chaos, just stick your neck out and everyone else defensive-drives so that they do not kill each other.  It is something else.  We went out for lunch, and three of us ate goat off of the same plate with our hands.  I am 50/50 on goat.  It sure it hard to get the smell off of your hands after.  Goat-meat has a distinct scent.

Stone Town sunset.

Marc, Sofia the sister, and I went to Foro Dani that is the food stall market in Stone Town.  You can live pretty high on the hog for about $2.50.  They bought me ‘urogo’ which is a very rich soup where you pick the ingredients you want in the soup.  The one Marc and Sofia bought had potatoes, sausage, a dumpling, and wonderful chili spices.  It is in the top two soups I have ever had in my life.  $0.50.  Sugar cane juice, hand squeezed by a man running a roller wheel.  $0.50.  Pistachio ice cream.  $0.50.  There was so much food there, but we had to go to another market where a friend of Sofia’s was preparing calamari for us.  We had a huge portion for the three of us for $6.50 total.  Underneath of the grill that was also cooking chicken was a live chicken on a string, patiently waiting its turn the grill.  I wonder if the chicken sort of kind of knew….

Chicken being cooked on the grill, and chicken below on a string, patiently waiting its turn to get up top.

* Zanzibar is a land of shops where men run grinders with naked eyes to break down welds that the welders build projects with without eye protection from the flash.  No welding flash protection…  Wow, that must be horrible to deal with when trying to sleep in a dark room at night.

It is nice to go from Michamvi to Stone Town to see a change, but wow I will miss my life in Michamvi.