Nairobi and Zanzibar

I got the opportunity to attend a 3 day USAID Rules & Regulations training in Nairobi in the beginning of October. It was my first time in Nairobi and unfortunately there isn’t much I can say. The extent of my NairobiAfrica. I ate thin crust pizza from the Italian restaurant and Japanese food grilled to perfection right in front of me at the Japanese restaurant. And most importantly I learned to stop complaining about Congo. I met a bunch of ladies who work in Juba in Southern Sudan. They talked about rat infested houses and offices, bathing in brown Nile water, being sick all the time because of the brown Nile water. And to top it all off…one of the girls, on the last day of training, got word that her friend had been air evacuated to Nairobi because she had oozing sores all over her body. YUCK! Never again will I complain, cause while my living conditions might not be a good as they were in Kampala, they are 5 star compared to Juba. experience was the drive to and from the airport. The rest of the time I stayed at the most amazing resort where the conference was held. I won’t bore you with the details of the training. But I did get the chance to meet some amazing men and women who are serving in different countries around

Leaving Nairobi I headed to Zanzibar for a week of R&R. Exciting and intriguing as Zanzibar sounds, it really does suck to vacation alone. And Zanzibar really is one of those places you need to enjoy in the company of friends or loved ones. That being said, I really enjoyed Stone Town and it’s wonderful Arabic architecture. The narrow, shop filled lanes were exciting to explore. The shopping was a little depressing as it was the exact same East African arts & crafts you can buy in Uganda yet more expensive. I did manage to buy a few treasures that I couldn’t find anywhere else.

I spent two nights in Stone Town and went on a spice tour one of the days. That was really fun. Who knew that’s what some of the spices looked like in their raw form? I was able to buy a ton of fresh spices which made a wonderful Christmas present for my brother the Chef.

Nutmeg and Mace - Nutmeg is the seed in the middle and the red membrane on the outside is the mace

Vanilla Beans on the vine before they are dried

Turmeric just pulled from the ground

From Stone Town I headed to Pongwe Beach on Zanzibars East Coast. As things turned out, I didn’t stay at the hotel I had originally booked with, but rather at their annex. It was a lovely spot with lovely staff, but didn’t have the white beach at my doorstep as I was looking forward too. At high tide, the water came right up to the cliff at the edge of the hotel. But when tide was low, you could climb down the stairs and walk for miles on soft white sandy beach or halfway out to the coral reef that rings the east coast of the Island. My morning walks were truly a peaceful time. Local women and children harvest sea snails and seaweed so as soon as the tide went out the sea floor was scoured for these delectable treats (not to me…but I am sure there are others who find them delectable!!!)

My favorite moment…finding Nemo’s cousin Bob or Barbara in a small sea anemone. I went back three days in a row to say hi.

Of course, no R&R for me is complete without some sort of disaster (Remember I was on my first R&R in Uganda in July when I found out about the fire in my room). I got my first cold since leaving Canada (it was a doozy) and my back went out so bad I couldn’t hardly walk or sit for two days. Then of course there was the heat…it was sooo hot and my room had no air conditioning, just a fan. So while it is nice to get away, sometimes it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.