Tropical Island

I lie on my back peaceful and calm as my body cools slightly to the water. My skin has been kissed by salt causing my skin to feel slightly tight. Avove the soft white sand and groves of banana trees there is a wonderful blue sky. Wood boats, mostly empty, idolly bob in the clear blue water around me. I swim on. Surprised that I am unsinkable in the dense salt water. Ah life on a tropical island.

But out of the water, life is a busy swarm of images. All of them vivid and alive and wanting your attention.

There is the House Of Wonders with it's massive white pillars three stories high. From the porch high above in the wind,  I have seen across this bay and to the other side of Stonetown. Inside I have learned the history of the many roads that I have traveled so far.

Forodhani is currently just empty lawn where people mingle and meet in the shade looking out over the water, but come tonight it will be a bustle of comotion. Sailors come and prepare their fresh caught prizes and sell them to anyone needing some dinner. Under the glow of their tables' lantern crab, shark, lobster, and different kinds of fishes lay waiting to be eaten. The Zanzibar Mix soup is amazing. And whatever you do, do not forget the sugar cane juice that is squeezed right before your eyes. Oh how wonderfully sweet and tangy it is.

If you take a doladola (kindof like a hippy van that has been changed into local bus transportation) about ten minutes out of town there is a wonderful zoo. For 10,000 TZS ($1 = 1570 TZS) you can go in and pet/hold giant turtles, have a python wrap around your next to constrict with camera flash, scratch a hyenna behind the ear to make it laugh, feed monkeys, ride a tall camel and see zebras, waterbuffalo, horses, chickens, cows, foxes, vultures, spiders, aarvarks, porquipines, and oh so much more! Oh what a fun afternoon that was!

Ofcourse the mornings are devoted to learning more Kiswahili at the State University of Zanzibar. In a classroom with old wooden desks, a chalkboard, not fitted linoleum, and two fans, we learn from Mwalimu Omar. The language is amazing and starts to make sence. It is when we  go out and start using the language that it really starts to come alive. From bardering in the market over prices of fruit, to just introducing self to someone else, it is amazing what doors language can open.
My host family this month is quite different than my last one. This family is Indian ethnically, but concider self to be African in nationality. They do not eat together, and love to show hospitality to all. There is a little boy named Mohammed that is three and so cute. He does occasionally mix kiSwahili, engligh, and Indian together in a sentence which is sortof hard to understand.  Khiriat (pronounced: hi-rat) is six and so much fun to talk to in kiswahili with.
 Sophie, our mom, is really nice, though is a little demanding and doesn't except "No thankyou" as an excuse for anything. Hamin, is a buisness man who isn't usually at home, but is fairly nice and easy to talk to.

Yes, it is very hot and humid here in Zanzibar. Yes, 99.8% of the island is Muslim. Yes, the food is overall pretty good. I can't wait to see what else this island has to offer as we have a very busy schedule planed ahead. But as for right now I am going to sign off and go jump in the Indian Ocean!