Killing Time in Zanzibar

Have I only been here 18 days? As it stands I'm chilling with the Peskind family in Nungwi after traversing the entirety of the island yesterday. Before I get too wrapped up in what's going on these days, how does a bit of history sound?

Zanzibar has been one giant friend swap so far. I started with My Swiss friend Sina (27 June-3 July), who watched the film festival with me and joined me for lunches. The Californians, who were fun when un-coupled (28 June-9 July). Puna, the chain smoking Finn (10 July). A few ex-peace corps folk (9-11 July). Roy and Gur, two Israelis that made drinking more interesting (10-13 July). Also, there's Feisel and the rest of the Zanzibari I see around town. Finally, I had around a million amoebas swimming around my insides to keep me company when there was no one else around (30 June-7 July). So yeah, not a lot of consistency, but an interesting mix of people/microscopic entities.

The job has been less thrilling than anticipated (the film festival stopped me from doing any work until last Tuesday), but can be withstood for the next 2-3 weeks I'll be here. I have my daily routine now, starting at 9:00 when I get to the office, a Swahili lesson at 1, lunch at the place across the street, more work from 3-4:30, and dinner at the fish market. Aside from the occasional quiche for lunch or the more than occasional outings to one of 4 bars in Stone Town, that's what I've been doing for the past 2 weeks or so. The film festival provided some solid entertainment, but none of the movies was worth writing home about (and since folks from home read this, I'll refrain from writing).

So yeah, that brings us to now. This weekend has been devoted to getting out of the confines of Stone Town, so Saturday was spent asleep on the beach in Paje with my teachers and some fellow students from Holland and today involved meeting Jeff, Cynthia and co. in Nungwi to walk down the beach and unwind. Tomorrow I take the 6 A.M. dalla dalla back to Stone Town and restart the routine all over again. Does anyone want to go to Pemba next week? I'm not even back in Stone Town yet and I'm planning my next escape...

Cheers,

-Dave

Information!

Quick update!

Zanzibar is going great, and I have info to share. First, my organizations website can be found at www.ziori.org. Secondly, I can be reached at the following address (allow 2-3 weeks for delivery, I'm leaving Aug 9).

David Shiroky c/o
Flamingo Guesthouse Room #0
P.O. Box 4279
Mkunazini St
Zanzibar

Cheers!

-Dave