Anyways, off of my Lion King tangent, here are the highlights of
the trip:
The
Villages
Homes
and Unfinished Buildings
It was quite interesting comparing the
villages in Rwanda to the villages in Tanzania; the lives of the people just
seem so different. Of course Zanzibar is
a bit more touristy so I'm sure that plays a role in the differences, but
living so close to the water makes a world of a difference too. The houses in Rwanda are built with mud
bricks covered in a cement-like material.
The houses in Tanzania, were made of
thatched pieces of straw...both the
walls and the ceilings. The few houses
that weren't made of thatched straw were built with stone, with seashells at
the corners to create beautiful designs (photos to come). All of the houses also had half buried car
tires in their front yards (which I'm assuming are for sitting while the mamas
do their house chores). In Rwanda,
instead of car tires, every family has a couple of small benches that are
literally a slab of wood about one foot long with two legs, raised only about 6
inches off of the ground. When the women
here cook, do dishes, and do laundry, they sit on these little benches so that
they don't have to bend over for hours, hurting their backs. Among the homes and buildings we saw in
Zanzibar, about half of them were unfinished; missing ceilings, doors, and
sometimes entire walls. When we were
flying into the country, we noticed that many of the buildings were roofless
and so for the duration of the trip we wondered why. We asked someone near the beach why some of
the houses didn't have roofs and they told us that the people there build their
own homes. When they run out of money,
they stop building. Homes may sit
unfinished for years before the owner has enough money to return and complete
it. This too is very different from
Rwanda. If someone in the village
doesn't have a home, the community gets together to build them one; and they
make sure to finish. You rarely see an
unfinished home in Rwanda; the most "unfinished" I've seen is the
house not having windows or a door.
The
People
As you can imagine, much of the visible
culture in Rwanda and Tanzania seems more or less the same. By this I mean, the women in Tanzania carry
things on their heads just as they do here in Rwanda; the women wear cloth
wrapped around their waists as skirts; and there are tons of children playing
outside. Although there were lots of
kids around the village, there weren't nearly as many as I see on a daily basis
in Rwanda. I'm not sure if the Tanzanian
kids were inside or if every year for Rwanda is a baby boom year, but there
definitely weren't half as many
children running around there as there are here. Also, the village kids seem to have grown
accustomed to the tourist side of things as nearly every group of kids who saw
us passing by yelled in our direction, "Foe-toe muh-knee! Foe-toe
muh-knee!!" (Photo, money). They
were telling us that for a little bit of money, they would be more than happy
to let us take their photos. It was kind of cute that they knew to ask for money
for the photos...I wonder who taught them that.
Making
a Living
In Rwanda, most of the women work as
cultivators; cultivating everything from beans and corn to wheat and
sorghum. As for the men, they typically
go around fixing things, building homes, or going to the bar. I rarely see a man work in Rwanda which
actually came as a huge shock to me when I first came here. The work and roles are definitely different
in Tanzania. The men work just as hard
as the women, if not harder. Zanzibar is
HUGE on seafood (and its actually very tasty) so of course it makes sense that most
of the men work as fishermen. While we
were walking along the beach and swimming in the water, we noticed that there
were tons of large sticks standing straight up out of the ocean floor, as if
they were meant for someone to step on. Over
the course of the trip, the tide continued to go lower and lower (as a full
moon was coming) and the further down the water went, the more sticks we
saw. Weird right? Well we were only growing more curious as
each day passed so one of us (I can't remember who) finally decided to ask what
the sticks were for. The person we asked
pointed at a women who was walking from far off with a huge sack full of sea
weed on her head. Then they added on
that the women of Tanzania work on sea weed plantations. They put these sticks in the ground about 6
inches apart and with a small string connecting each one. This little contraption of sticks and strings
ends up being around 10 meters by 10 meters.
Next, they tie small pieces of seaweed on the strings in between the
sticks and the sea weed grows in just a few days. When they feel like it has grown enough, the
women wait for the water to go back down, take their rice sacks and stuff them
full of sea weed to be used for cooking (and I think for traditional art). Pretty cool huh!
Scuba
Diving
There are two things that I have
always wanted to do and they are scuba dive and sky dive. Lucky me, I was able to cross one of the two
adventures off of my to-do list. I went
Scuba Diving in the second best place in the world! (At least that's what the diving instructor
told us; apparently the Red Sea is number 1).
Underwater life is absolutely breath-taking. I always told myself that if I didn't major
in biochemistry, my major would have been marine biology. I think under water life is one of the most
amazing things in all of God's creation!
The bunch of us that traveled to
Zanzibar stayed on a resort called Extreme Diving Resort. Of course I showed my blonds when I didn't
think diving actually meant diving,
but I'm certainly glad it did! And it
was affordable! Yayy!! We were all too excited to pass up a chance to go scuba
diving so as soon as the owner mentioned it, we asked how much, and told him
that we were all in! First we had a 30-minute
lesson on how to do it (under water signs for help/'I'm okay," how to get
the water out of your mask if it fills up, how to remove the pressure from your
ears as you go deeper, etc). After the
lesson, we were told that he (the instructor) could only take two of us down at
a time; the reason being that in the case of an emergency, he can help two
people successfully--any more than that and someone is a goner. Since there were five of us, we agreed on who
would go with who and who would end up going alone.
Finally it came time for me to do my
first dive (the package consisted of two dives: a shallow dive for practice and
a deep dive for beauty). Myself and one
of my friends put on our gear, held onto our mask and breathing thig-a-ma-jigs
(so much for the class), sat on the edge of the boat, and were pushed backwards
into the water (just like in the movies! Or the discovery channel...whatever
you're into). We swam away from the boat
and then realized, OhEmGee we're actually
doing this! Of course, nothing
happens in my life without a little mishap and as soon as the instructor pushed
the button for the weights to pull me under the water, I panicked. I was sinking much quicker than I was
comfortable with and this breathing under water thing was a lot trickier than
it seemed. It's not as easy as, in and out...in and out... You have to actually wrap your mind around
the fact that you're breathing UNDER WATER!
It's really trippy and for the first 30 seconds, I actually wanted out
and to go back to the top, but then I remembered the last thing the instructor
said during the training, "There is never any going up. You go down, you stay down, and you
finish. If you try to swim back up, I
will grab your arm and hold you down."
His exact words. Scary
right??? So I closed my eyes for a split
second and calmed myself the best I could.
He grabbed my hand, seeing that I was clearly having an underwater panic
attack and this somehow helped to calm me.
In no time I was okay again. As for
my friend, her head never made it under the water. I guess she came to her senses when she saw
my reaction. When I was finished she
imitated the face that I made when I panicked under water...let's just say my
eyes were the size of golf balls and I looked as if I were staring death right
in the eyes!
My sister went after me and didn't
seem to do much better. The instructor
specifically told us, you are never to take off your oxygen mask and what did
she do? The genius panicked and took off
her oxygen mask. Why you would take off
the one thing that can actually keep you alive while you're under water is
beyond me, but hey, ask her. At any
rate, we were told that if you panic and swim up to the top before the
instructor has a chance to hold you down, you will make it as long as you're in
the shallow dive. However, if you are in
the deep dive (up to 15 meters below water) and you try to pull the
I'm-going-to-take-off-my-mask-and-swim-to-the-top stunt, you will most
definitely die. Yep. D.I.E.
So, I'm glad that when my sister pressed her luck, it was during the
shallow dive...I don't even want to think about if it was the deep dive.
Now that day one was under our belt
and we were "professional" shallow divers, day two came, and this was
the day of our deep dive. I was excited
and dreading the experience all at the same time. If I panicked at just 5 meters below water, I
wasn't sure what to expect for 15 meters!
So we hopped in the boat, put on our gear, and this time my sister and I
dived together. The instructor pushed
the buttons for the weights and down we went...13.9 meters under water! It actually wasn't so bad this time around. No panic attacks from me (nor my sister) and
we got to see all of the wondrous beauties that the Lord thought to create and place
in what we call the ocean. It was amazing!!!
We saw sea stars, a million different kinds of fish, beautiful coral (so many
colors, shapes, and sizes), HUGE clams, the list goes on. Scuba diving is by far one of my best life
experiences and I am so happy that I got to do it. I'm even thinking about getting certified at
some point in my life. It really is
beautiful down there; just like the Discovery Channel, except you're so close
to everything that you can actually reach out and touch it (or run from it)!
More
Beach Time Fun
Snorkeling
When we went scuba diving, there were
about 6 of us on the boat, and as I said before, the instructor took us under
water in pairs. I think I have
undiagnosed ADD (I've always had a hard time sitting still), so while the
instructor was diving with the first two people, I took the extra time in the
water as an opportunity to cross something else off my life to-do
list...snorkeling! I grabbed the extra
pair of flippers, goggles, and a snorkel (with permission of course), climbed
out of the boat and went for it! It was
tons of fun and really cool, but nowhere near what you get with diving. I made sure to stay close to the boat since
the instructor was deep, deep down under water, but at least I can say I did
it. And all by myself at that!
On the way back from diving/snorkeling,
I half joked with the driver that I wanted to try driving the boat. I have never been on a speed-type boat and I
thought it would be cool to add "drove a boat" to my list of vacation
adventures. I was expecting a no, but
when the instructor tossed an, "okay" my way, I jumped at the
chance! He moved out of the way and I
grabbed the wheel. I think I drove
(really just steered) for about 5 minutes and then when he said to make sure I
look out for the dark spots in the water because those are huge rocks, I
decided that I had had enough of driving.
I was NOT trying to kill us all for the sake of a quick thrill. Here
you go mister, you just found a way to get the wheel back. lol
Tide
Pooling Gone Wrong
My senior year of college is when I initially
fell in love with under water life. I
took a Marine Discovery class where we (the college students) learned about
various under water animals and then taught facts about these same animals to
elementary school children. Many of the
animals we worked with were alive and the ones that weren't, I got to see alive
when we took a class trip to tide pool at the CEDO Research Center in Mexico. This was sooo very cool and it must have
stuck with me as I talked my sister and friends into going tide-pooling with me
in Zanzibar on the day of the full moon.
We went out to look for water animals and to
walk along the beach. As we were
walking, we noticed that the sand had a ton of sharp pieces of something in it and so we were all
trying to stay close together, walking in the same general area. From behind me, my sister said, "I'm walking
in all of your footprints because I don't want to st--." Just as she said this, she saw something, and
no it wasn't an animal. Then she felt
something. The pain in her right foot
and the blood floating away from us in the water was enough to tell us to go
back to shore to check things out. It's
kind of funny because she is the one person who wasn't really interested in
tide-pooling in the first place (nature never has been her thing), and she's
the one who ended up injured. At any
rate, we went back up to shore...and thank God, there were two nurses staying
at our resort! They tidied her foot up
in no time!
Love and Peace Corps,
Dametreea
PS. That's not all. You can read more from our Zanzibar adventure
in tomorrow's post.
What an awesome adventure! I would love to go diving someday. Glad you had the opportunity. ~Laura
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