Dove

As usual, I was in a hurry to go from one hotel to the other. Fortunately, the hotels ly in "my street", a long, straight, wide road. Here I can smoothly drive 70Km per hour.

But as always when you're in a hurry - Murphy's Law, right? – there were some obstacles: some goats, a dala dala.

Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic, so I  can overtake the dala dala: I accelerate and... suddenly I see in the middle of the road a dove. I think quickly:  will I braking? Will I dodge more? Or maybe she will fly when she sees me coming?

I opt for the last solution but slightly dodge anyway. I pass the dala dala but I don’t see the pigeon fly.

When I look in my mirror, I see the pigeon on the pavement waving with her wing. A sense of guilt overwhelms me.

Suddenly a boy of about nine years comes from the roadside and runs to the doves.

My guilt fades ... Tonight one family will have meat for dinner...

Africa, you love it or you hate it.

For those who want to know how it is to work in Africa, for those who want to know what it is to work in a place where people have a completely different culture… this is a real, but daily story, of how I work in Zanzibar.

I have written it before: people àre very nice and friendly here. But friendliness has not always much to do with working and knowledge.

As an (over-organised) European, you just have to be patient… and don’t loose your smile in such situations…

So this morning… I arrived at hotel “La Gemma dell’Est”, a 5 star resort in the Nord of the island. As all hotels, they have security at the gate checking who comes in and who goes out of the hotel. As I wear a uniform and I drive always the same car, most hotel guards already know me by now and let me in.

In La Gemma dell’Est it is a bit different. I was stopped by the guard.

Guard: “Good morning. How are you?”

Me: “I am fine thank you.”

I never ask “And how are you?” which is actually a bit rude. But if I ask, another question from his side  will follow (And how is the work today?) and then another (And how is your family?) and another… and there will be no end. And most of the time I am in a hurry.

Guard: “How can I help you?”

Me: “Well, you could help me by opening the barrier.”

Guard: “Where are you going?”

You should realise now that the gate of La Gemma is already 100 inside the territory of the hotel, so there is no other possibility than going to the hotel.

Me: “I am going to ‘The Royal Zanzibar’.”

That is the hotel nearby…

Guard: “Why do you come here?”

Me: “For fun, I just come here for fun.”

It is clear the guard has not understood anything. He looks at me.
I tell him: “Ask me a ‘good’ questions (I cannot use the word ‘intelligent’, that is too difficult for him) and I will give you a good answer.”

And the guard: “Yes madam, so how can I help you?”

Me: “Well, you could help me by opening the barrier.”

Guard: “Where are you going?”

And of course, I do it again: “I am going to ‘The Royal Zanzibar’!”

Guard: “But this is La Gemma dell’Est. Why do you come here? “

Me: “As I told you, I come here for fun.”

All this time I have my uniform, my name tag and behind the front window of my car there is a board with the Thomas Cook and the Neckermann logo.

Fortunately, the guards colleague comes to the gate, he sees me and asks the other guard to open the gate.

He opens the gate, but in his eyes I can still see the questions:” Can I help you? Where are you going? Why do you come here?”

When I leave the hotel, about 45 minutes later, he opens the barrier spontaneously. But the question marks… they are still in his eyes…

Education

We have an animated conversation at the table. Taking about the slowliness of the Zanzibarin people, their stupidity (or maybe this is difference in culture).

It depends all on their education that they are not willing to leanr.

Education? They don’t even receive any education. They are running freely in their villages, educated by everyone and by nobody. They don’t know what discipline is.

Maybe something of this is true.

And than suddenly a young girl passes at the reception of this 5*hotel, wearing only a bikini.

Who is now not well-educated?

I found this picture on facebook. It tells a lot on education, culture,…

Ndimu.

7:30, the restaurant is open since half an hour. I take a place at the managers table and one of the waiters notices that I don’t have a cup. He walks – a walk that is something between the walk of a penguin and a Jamaican musician – towards another table, takes a cup, gives it to me and disappears.

Oh, I get a cup but I don’t get anything to drink.

Some time later a trainee comes to ask if I want coffee.
No, but I would like to have a bottle of water, wìth a glass.

He looks surprised: a glass?

Sic… most of the guests take their bottle of water away, but I want to drink water.

After breakfast I would like to have a cup of tea. I ask another trainee, this time it is a girl, to bring me tea with lemon please.

She disappears and comes back with tea and… milk

What’s this?

Milk!

Did I ask for milk?

No!

So please take away the milk and bring me what I asked for.

She disappears again and I see at her behaviour that she has no intention to return to bring me something else.

When I see her after some minutes I tell her: I’m still waiting for the lemon.  She answers with the typical “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” and leaves again.

This time she disappears completely and does not return at all.

The other trainee comes by and asks me if I want some more water.

No I don’t, thank you, but maybe you could look for your colleague who is looking for lemon for me.

Are you still waiting for your lemon? The chef, who has joined me, asks me

Eh... yes.

Most probably she doesn’t now what lemon is and she has disappeared for not admitting it.

Starting from tomorrow I will ask for “ndimu”.