April was a good month. My family came and I went to Zanzibar (not at the same time). It was weird to have my family here, especially in Sikalongo. I realized that I have gotten fairly used to sticking out because of my skin color to the point where I don’t really think about it anymore. However, traveling with 4 other Muzungus once again made me conscious of my skin color and the stereotypes associated with it.
My favorite moment from my family’s visit was when my host father remarked, “You have onry boys.” My dad started to make a comment about Taylor being especially ornery when we realized he meant, “You have only boys.” Haha.
It was a bit of an adventure to get to Zanzibar. First, we took the bus two hours north of Lusaka to the train station. We boarded the train on Friday afternoon. Everything was going smoothly until Saturday evening when we stopped. When we woke up on Sunday morning, we were in the same place. Turns out the train in front of us had derailed or something like that so we were stuck. Luckily we found a South African who spoke Swahili and he helped us board a bus to Dar es Salaam. The bus ride was also an adventure as we were traveling at rather high speeds through the beautiful Tanzanian mountains. Part of the bus ride was also through a national park where we saw Giraffes, Zebras, and an Elephant.
We finally got to Dar on Sunday night. We slept at a YWCA and caught the first ferry to Zanzibar in the morning. Once in Zanzibar we did what people do at the beach – nothing. Okay that’s not entirely true. We did go snorkeling and I tried “spearfishing”. Spearfishing is in quotes because it should have been called “Snorkeling while holding a speargun.” Our “instructor” was a local man who showed us how to shoot and then said, “5 meters” and held his hand out wide to tell us how far apart we should be. Then he went off hunting by himself. Neither I, nor my fellow spearman, was able to catch anything. The water was about 10 feet deep so we had to try to swim down to the fish while keeping the rope from being tangled. Even if successful in this endeavour, one still had to aim – something that I apparently could not do adequately. Our instructor did spear 4 small fish, although I think a couple of them were probably protected species…haha.
Other highlights of Zanzibar include reminiscing about Hesston College with my friend Cortney (who went to Hesston with me and is currently a pilot in DRC), eating fresh seafood and fruit, and not eating nshima.
But alas, all good things must come to an end. So now I am back in Sikalongo waiting for school to start on May 5th. I would like to ask for prayer as I decide what to do when this experience is over and also that I don’t leave too soon. I don’t mean that I might come home early, but I am starting to leave mentally (i.e. losing focus/purpose).