Many greetings from Zanzibar

Dear all,

After almost three weeks in Zanzibar, here an update of the situation.

Sorry for the impersonal character, but I'm provisionally quite busy making it rather difficult to give everyone a personal message.

How have those almost-three-weeks run?

I spent 2 weeks shadowing Peter, the tour guide that I know from Kenya. It was nice to see him again and since we know each other, the cooperation went very smoothly. In between I also have gone on safari to Tanzania and made some other trips on the island: a spice garden, Stone Town and red colobus monkeys in Jozani National Park. Again some pleasant experiences.

Concerning the work: that seems to be quite a lot. Thomas Cook has save money and instead of 2 tour guides ... there is only 1. And that’s me. This means that I do not only assist the Belgian, Dutch, French and German guests but also the Polish, Czech and Hungarian. Of course I do not speak those languages, but in theory these guests know that they will be assisted only in English, German or French. In practice, it is true that especially the Polish guests do not speak much more than Polish. And me I thought that Polish people are gifted for languages ​​...

In addition, guests do not only com with the Thomas Cook (Condor) flight from Frankfurt on Monday, but they come every day of the week, at any hour of the day with flights from national airlines like Ethiopian or Oman Airlines. That means that every day I have to go somewhere for a welcome meeting.

But not worries: I drive around here with a nice jeep of which the radio only functions when he is willing to function. And that willing is quite often associated with the flatness of the surface. Not so much.
Cattle lies at the leash, the danger of riding down a cow is fairly small. Different situation with the chicken, so I constantly feel like I'm somewhere in the middle of a "chicken run".

Zanzibar is very vast, highways are not available so I am quite a lot of time “on the way”. The furthest hotel is 85 km from the hotel where I live, that is about 1h30 driving. But the scenery is beautiful, especially the palms and banana trees. And lots of crossing wild: goats!

I live in Neptune Pwani hotel, is owned by the same family as the Sentido Neptune hotels which I have worked for in Kenya. That's nice: some colleagues here know colleagues over there. Yet again a small family.

Nice, spacious room, with a clumsy desk and  no BVN (or Rai) on TV. Good food and sea view from my spacious terrace. What do you want to have more in life?

Zanzibar  is Africa, the same and yet different from Kenya.

The same as the people are of the same tribes (mainly Maasai) but different because they are islanders. They are actually even slower than the Kenyans ... But friendly and helpful they are. In this sense no difference.

But to be honest ... I miss the enthusiasm of Kenyans the have for mzungu’s. No children who exuberantly  yel "jambo mama" and wave their hands till they got tired and also the sense of humour is not like in Kenya.

But as this is Africa, so because of their hospitality and cheerfulness it remains a nice destination. You'll also do not see the extreme poverty like in Kenya, there is enough food for everyone, and the vast majority are respectable (clean) dressed, the veiled Muslim women are sometimes tied with coloured scarves.
But: no supermarket on this island. My Thomas Cook boss (a man!) will occasionally come from Kenya and offered me to bring what I need. But how can I explain to him what shampoo and face cream he should buy for me :-)

But ... actually I have all what I need, just like the other Zanzibarians (or how they may be called).  I just had a nice "4 ladies only " dinner at the restaurant of the hotel, in a mix of English, Italian, Swahili, German and French.

Zanzibar is OK!

Many greetings and ...

Ilse