So I suspect this will be my final post for a while as I’m not sure people will be as interested in reading about my adventures (or lack of) in the UK! It’s been a busy week and I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet that I’m leaving Tanzania for good tomorrow. I’ve had two leaving parties in Ndanda – one with the staff on my ward and one with the other volunteers. I had been slightly dreading the party with my ward staff – not because I didn’t want to go out with them, but because Tanzanian parties are somewhat different from what I'm used to and, for someone who doesn’t much like being the centre of attention, has the rhythm of a dead fish and an abject fear of public speaking, they are a terrifying prospect. The classic Tanzanian sherehe (party) is very much along the lines of a UK wedding with a top table, speeches, an MC, lots of dancing and lots of present giving (also done with dancing which is expected from both the giver and receiver). They are also usually arranged by a committee and all guests are expected to pay quite a lot of money to attend! The thought of this brought me out in a cold sweat, so I was incredibly relieved that the nurses were happy just to go out for food at the local nun-bar with no expectation of top tables, all night dancing, MCs or planning committees. I didn’t entirely manage to avoid speeches, dancing or presents but I discovered I am actually less nervous about giving a speech in Swahili that I am in English – mistakes being kind of expected and acceptable! Edina informed me that I had managed to say 'good words' and that I hadn’t made too many mistakes so that was all good. As can be seen from the picture below, I was presented with a lot of lovely material to make clothes and cushion covers from back home, and one piece with faces of the Tanzanian presidents on lest I forget them! Many nice words were said by the staff – not all fully understood by me but Rashidi assured me they were all nice as he tried to provide a translation service where possible. It was all a bit emotional, and was capped off by me providing a taxi service home for the staff not living in Ndanda. This involved some fairly interesting off-road driving in the dark with people telling me that it really wasn’t that much further (not true!).
I had expected the party with the volunteers to be a relaxing experience in comparison, but with the benefit of hindsight, having it on the day before I had to leave (at 5.30am) may not have been the best idea. I don’t do well with packing and have always been inclined to put it off until the last possible minute, when I really can’t distract myself from the task any longer. I thought I didn’t have that much stuff to pack and I thought it wouldn’t actually take that long, but having spent a year and a half here this was clearly ridiculous! After a day spent frantically trying to cook, pack, visit people to say goodbye and take pictures, I was a little stressed by the time the party was due to start. This wasn’t helped much by the fact I had decided that it was a good time to defrost my freezer so, amidst all the chaos, large pools of water kept forming and spreading across the kitchen floor. I think this was probably something that would have been better done a couple of days before leaving but luckily some wonderful friends and fellow volunteers took it upon themselves to sort the fridge out (probably after detecting signs of an imminent mental breakdown on my part) and all was ok. After accepting the fact that I would have to stay up all night to finish packing and organising everything I was leaving behind into piles, I did eventually relax enough to enjoy myself. It was lovely to have the opportunity to say goodbye to the people that have got me through the last year and a half and with whom I have shared some wonderful experiences.
Leaving was fairly traumatic (probably not helped by the fact I had no sleep whatsoever and had to leave very early), but I had a trip to Chumbe Island to look forward to and the thought of this eased the pain somewhat. Incredibly all stages of the journey went smoothly, and by Friday afternoon I was sitting on the beach in Zanzibar with a cold beer watching the sunset while a crazy man nearly flipped his truck trying to get it onto a ferry (I was informed that I shouldn’t be taking pictures because it was a military truck but this kind of thing is too good to be forgotten and since he was carrying coke and beer not rocket launchers I figured the rules didn’t count).
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| A very determined truck driver - A LOT of bottles were broken during this escapade! |
Anyway, Chumbe Island Coral Park is a private nature reserve with eco-lodge just off the coast of Zanzibar. I’d heard about it through a friend who is living in Zanzibar and after being promised sea turtles swimming wild I was determined to visit! I closed my eyes when they gave me the bill and tried hard to forget the starving children. Luckily the company is non-commercial and I could feel a little better about the indulgence by thinking about all the conservation, research and education that will be done with the money – we saw a group of school children arriving as we left so I'm fairly confident they weren't lying about this. Now, I’ve never stayed anywhere like it before so can’t really compare eco-lodges, but I can say that it was absolutely amazing and easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stayed! The staff were fantastic, food was great, setting was stunning and most importantly we saw turtles. I should probably point out that when I say I was promised turtles this may not have been exactly how the conversation went but I had undoubtably set my heart on seeing them. When my friend Wendy waved me over shouting 'turtle' I nearly died of excitement! My first response to seeing him (or her) lazily paddling around below me was to let out a ridiculous high-pitched girly scream (through a snorkel), grab hold of Wendy's wrist and set off in pursuit. In the end we managed to go snorkeling 3 times and saw turtles on every occasion (they did not lose their appeal!) We were also lucky enough to see sting rays, lobsters, a crocodile fish, giant clams in a range of colours and many, many fish of every colour combination imaginable. I could happily have spent all day floating around, especially since I was able to borrow a sunsuit to wear, and therefore avoided looking like a well cooked lobster. Obviously I did look totally ridiculous in the suit which was very much like the all-in-one pyjamas I wore as a child (although not fleecy), about 3 sizes too big and more than a little saggy around the bottom half – well worth it to avoid sunburn I decided!
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| View from the lighthouse |
The island was also home to crabs of all shapes and sizes and I got a little carried away taking pictures! The coconut crabs were enormous and apparently we didn’t even see the really big ones – I was just impressed that he had managed to get into the coconut himself and was able to drag it round the island with him to eat later. After the evening walk to see the coconut crabs, I indulged in some night-time swimming under a cloudless sky with absolutely thousands of stars twinkling above. It took me a while to notice that the water was also twinkling around me and, for only the second time in my life, I saw phosphorescence (or is it bioluminescence?) while swimming. I absolutely cannot describe how incredible it was but I would suspect anyone that knows me will realise that I was more than a little excited by the whole thing. It was only the fact that I still needed to catch up on sleep that tempted me out of the water!
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| I think this guy suspected me of wanting to steal his hole. |
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| Excitingly there was a hermit crab highway outside our hut which opened just as the sun started to set |
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| A coconut crab usefully carrying a coconut just to show how big he is! |
Sadly, as with all good things, the trip had to come to an end and we headed back to Zanzibar the next morning. I could happily have stayed much longer on the island, but my flight home is already booked and final meetings needed to be had, bags repacked and blogs written. I may or may not add to this over the next few months but I will definitely start writing again once I head off south to meet the penguins.
