Zanzibar: Still in Jambiani preparing for the next step

John:.....and so, if you were a day or more older than me (hard to imagine for some of you I know) and I said Hujambo (how are you?) to you you might say Sijambo (fine thank you) back. What would you do then if after that I said shikamoo (shick-a-moh) to you? Why of course you would say marahaba (thank you for your respectful greeting). All of which brings me to say that in view of our two weeks working as volunteers in a village on the mainland we thought we ought to gather at least a rudimentary grasp of some kiswahili.

The chap I mentioned in the previous posting, with 13 children, tried to sell us a range of activities including swimming with dolphins. We said hapana ahsante (no thank you - a very useful phrase over here) but if he would like to sit and chat for a few minutes he was very welcome. After half-an-hour I suggested that he might want to consider teaching us some basic kiswahili for 1 session per day. Ali has taken this responsibility very seriously and I'm afraid that he is a better teacher than we are students. He teaches us for 30-45 minutes per day and then tests us and moves on to the next topic the following day. We have learned a lot in the 4 days so far and we still have 3 sessions left. We put Ali off his idea of giving us a whole day exam on Monday as an 'end of course treat'...as I say, he has taken the commission very seriously. Yesterday he took us on a tour around Jambiani town. Fascinating. I mentioned the demographics in the last posting. There are children everywhere. They are largely self sufficient, or so it seems. They play in groups without adult supervision of any obvious kind. We were told that the well worn phrase 'it takes a village to raise a child' is very much the case here.

Measured purely in economic terms there is considerable poverty here. Housing is very basic and varies from coconut leaves platted into strips and applied to mango brach frames, to coral rock (the whole island is uplifted coral) built houses through to concrete block built houses. Roofing is either corrugated tin or coconut leaves woven into slats or 'thatched'. Ali took us to his house to meet his family. There are 10 people living there at the moment and the house is about 12 m x 12 m. Cooking is done over charcoal in a kitchen that opens out on to a central open area. Bedrooms and the eating/meeting area are built around this courtyard. Very little furniture. Most sitting is on a mat on the floor with concessions for older people of a stool, the seat of which is 6 inches above the ground or a sack partially filled with some padding ? coconut leaves. Ali advised us that so many houses were half built because it could take a man 10 years to be able to afford the materials and time to build the house. Still, we saw a lot of enterprise too including the young carpenter making everything from door frames, tables, beds, cupboards in a small workshop with a bench, some tools, a dim lamp, radio and a big smile. He loved his job and was setting out to establish himself in the village.

It should be said that despite the obvious poverty and the marked contrast between local villagers and muzungu (us) visitors, there is little trouble in the town. We have seen 1 policewoman in the 2 weeks we have been in the village and she looked bored. We have walked through the village at night without any fear of harm. There are many places in the world where that would not be the case.

This morning we walked along the beach towards the town, passing by the hostel that we originally booked into. After 3 days with no shower or toilet flushing we moved from there about a kilometre further south. Off season now so a good deal was struck and we are here now until we fly to the mainland. Along the way we saw lots of children on the beach. Today is Friday (like Sunday for Muslims) so no nursery school and the secondary school is closed for Ramadan. Lots of boys have made toy boats, ranging in sophistication from ruined flip flops/jandals with little plastic bags for sails through to more substantial replica outrigers made from wood with cotton sails. All keenly watched for performance as the boys set these sailing on the various pools left behind as the tide went out.

We were interested in the number of women working alone, or with another woman putting pieces of old coral into piles below the high water mark. Under these piles of rock are lots of coconut husks that are left for 12-18 months in the sea before the fibres are stripped to make rope with. Like many things here it looked like very hard work. The temperature was around 30 centigrade with high humidity. There seemed little expectation that either the children (playing in the sand/playing with boats) or men (in the mosque or sitting in the shade talking in groups) would help. Slightly further along the beach we encountered a young fisherman who set fire to dried coconut leaves under his boat to clean off the green seaweed on it and help to keep it waterproof. So much going on.

One thing of note along the beach is the number of pieces of clothing that can be found. We think that this is because most of the washing is done on the beach. When I say washing I probabl mean tenderizing. It looks, from a distance, as if tee shirts, trousers etc get exactl the same treatment as a newly killed octopus. Beaten with a stick and scrubbed vigorously! I suspect that the life span of a tee shirt is less than that of an octopus in these parts. The clothing found on the beach and shredded on the sharp coral outcrops is probabl left over from washing trips.

I forgot to mention in a previous posting that we met our friend and ex colleague Liz Booth in Stone Town with her partner David. We have been trying to catch up with Liz (lives in North Yorkshire) every time we have been to the UK for the past 10 years and not managed it. Small world as they say. We had a couple of lovely meals with them and a good catch up. Grand people!