When we were riding to work on Tuesday morning the ground was a bit wet from the rain during the night. At one point a car ahead of us stopped very suddenly and the motorcycle behind it, carrying two young guys with no helmets, couldn’t stop in time and they laid down the bike. It was very scary to watch since the car behind the bike also had to screech to a halt and I was sure those guys would be run over. But all was alright: the guys jumped up incredibly quickly, picked up the bike and wheeled it to the median and the cars behind started honking because traffic slowed down for 30 seconds. No one asked those guys if they were alright.

Work was not very exciting so I’ll leave out most of the boring details. We got to the office at 7 am for a conference call with San Francisco and spent an hour talking to our advisors. We spent the morning planning our next mapping activities and printing more labels for district supervisors. The number of malaria cases is ramping up. One area had 0 cases in the first two weeks of May, then 29 cases in the second half! It is going to get busier keeping up with all of the data.
After work we went into town to the main market to get some things for dinner. This shopping experience was much better than the first. We didn’t have to spend an hour getting bike locks, which helped a lot and we knew exactly what we wanted. We got some more spices and found green beans, peas, cauliflower, dates, coconut milk powder (yes, a powder), and some dried beans. A very successful shopping trip all around.

However, we ran into some troubles on the way home when I got a flat tire on my bike. We hadn’t gotten very far so we walked our bikes back to the market and asked someone where to go. The guy took us to a bike and car place and we waited while the fundi (repairman) found the hole in the tube and fixed it. It cost $7.50 to fix, which was probably way too much, but beggars can’t be choosers and we wanted to get home before dark.

I should mention a few things about riding around here. First, it’s sort of scary. Cars and especially the dalla dallas (the minibuses that the locals take) don’t signal in the same way as in the US and can pull over at any moment. They also get *very* close to you. I wonder how many walkers and bikers get hit by them. No one yields and everyone drives quickly.
There are two traffic lights on the entire island. Both are in Stone Town.

There’s a law that you must wear a seatbelt while in the front seat of a car. There’s no law about the back seat passengers. You also have to wear a helmet if riding a motorbike (a piki piki here). Many people do, but not everyone.
Tanya and I get a lot of people saying Hi to us when we are riding our bikes. This is for several reasons: there are not many white people here at this time of year so we stick out a lot; very few women ride bikes in general; and we are the only two people in Zanzibar who wear bike helmets. Most people just say hi, but I know some of them are making fun of us. I would much rather be safer and look like a fool than to risk an accident.

When we got home we made the most delicious Indian curry for dinner, with all of our fresh vegetables from the market. It was the best meal we’ve made so far and we were both very full and satisfied afterward.

I was really exhausted last night because the pillow I have been using is not good and I wake up in the middle of the night with a neck ache. I switched pillows with one in another room and will try this new one tonight.

On Monday morning Tanya and I went running at 6:30 am. Even though the sun rose just a few minutes earlier, it was still hot and sweaty.

Sadly, my nice cool shower was quickly negated by the bike ride to work, which was nearly as sweaty as the run.

We had decided that it might be helpful to get the patient names from the consent forms they signed, however the consent forms were not organized in any way. There are 900 of them. We spent all morning alphabetizing them.

In the afternoon, we printed copies of consent forms and questionnaires, and made more supply packets for the district supervisors. Although we didn’t have much to do, it seemed to take a long time and we didn’t leave work until 4:30.

We needed more drinking water and wanted to get a new 20 liter container, however transporting 20 L of water a half mile without a car is challenging. We decided to bike down the road to a shop that sold them, with me carrying the empty container to return. About half way down, the container slipped from my hand and I slid a bit. It wasn’t exactly a fall, but it was a sudden stop that made me a bit nervous about our plan. Luckily we were right in front of a bike shop and a guy hurried out with a piece of rubber strap and secured the plastic container to the back of my bike with it.

The full water container was a bit harder to handle since it was heavier. Fortunately again, the guy at the water shop had some more rubber straps for us and we were able to secure the container to the back of my bike. It was pretty slow going on the way back with the water sloshing around and throwing me a bit off balance, but we managed just fine. And now I can haul things on my bike like the locals!

The power went out just as we were done cooking dinner so we were happy that we started when we did. We ate in the dark but the power came back on before we went to sleep. Lala salama (good night).

Here’s a video Tanya and I made of our house. You better watch it because it took 3 hours to upload here.

On Sunday Tanya and I went running at 6:30 am before it got too hot. It was a sweaty and humid run but it was good to get out and be active.

We had granola for breakfast since we had gotten it at the store the day before. Yum!

Makame and Juma picked us up at 8:15 and we were off again. We went down the road to our own local health facility. Makame had called ahead to let them know the records that we needed. Sure enough, all of the documents were there and we quickly got the names of all of the patients we needed. The health facility worker there is also an assistant Sheha and he would be helping us to find the patients.

It turns out that he didn’t know who any of those people were either. We drove to one part of the shehia and asked around for a little bit and found one of the children. I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s suffice it to say that after four hours and only finding three of seven people, we called a stop for the day. Our project is not going according to plan and we are finding many unexpected challenges. Our top priority for this week is to talk to our advisor and get some advice.

We were sort of bummed we spent all morning and got almost nothing done, but that’s out of our control. We consoled ourselves with making a good lunch (rice with vegetable curry) then going to Mbweni ruins for high tide at 2 pm.
We rode our bikes down there then swam in the ocean for a while. I saw a bunch of cool crabs clinging to the dock and watched them scurry away as I approached. It was really nice to be refreshed by the water and I stopped being sweaty for a few minutes. We sat on the pier and read and talked then swam some more. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The evening was very relaxed, with leftovers for dinner, some reading and a bit of watching TV. We made a plan for Monday and are ready for a new week.

We asked Makame and the driver, Juma, to pick us up at our house at 8 am so we wouldn’t have to bike to work then drive past our house on the way to where we would be doing the mapping on Saturday. At 8:15 we called and asked where he was. Tanya tried to tell him where we lived (there are no addresses here and everyone just goes by landmarks), but instead of listening, he just said, “I’m coming” and hung up. Finally we found them and were off.
Our first stop was at the health facility of Fuoni kibodeni, where we planned to get patients names from the medical records so we could find the houses of the malaria patients. When we got to the health facility, the health care worker couldn’t find the Malaria case record form that we needed and the outpatient record form was missing the dates of our cases. We hung around for an hour while they looked for the records to no avail. Finally, we gave up and told them to call us if they found them.

Then we went to the Fuoni health facility, where they had the patient registries for their cases. We got the names we needed and one of the health workers said she would help us find the patients. We drove down the road, stopping a few times to ask people if they knew these people. No one could help us. We asked around for three hours but no one knew where these two people lived.

As it turns out, both patients were under 5 years old and we had their names, but not their parent’s name, which turned out to be a big problem because here a whole family does not have the same last name. In Zanzibar, a son’s name is his father’s last name and his last name is his grandfather’s first name. If we thought not having addresses was difficult, not knowing the parent’s name made the situation much more challenging.

After 4 hours total everyone was tired and cranky so we decided to pack it in for the day even though we hadn’t done any mapping. I think that was the right idea. We made a game plan for the next day and week and then went home.
Tanya and I wanted to get some spices for cooking, so we decided to ride into town (yay no taxi!) and go to the market. First we had to get bike locks to we could secure our bikes though. On the way to the market, we passed by the Zantel store, which does cell phone and internet service. We stopped to ask them about internet rates, but they were closed until Monday.

The market here is unlike any shopping experience in the states. There are a bunch of booths set up on the street and in this square and you can buy just about anything, for a price (although very few things have prices on them). We wheeled our bikes around looking for a place that sold locks before just asking someone where to get one. Everyone here is very nice and helpful, so we quickly had four guys running around getting us bike locks. The only ones they had are these stainless steel wires wrapped in plastic but that’s what everyone uses so hopefully our bikes won’t get stolen. Oh, and there are no metal posts to tie your bike to; you just lock the back wheel to the frame and hope.

That accomplished, we went in search of spices, which is not hard when you’re on The Spice Islands. The spices are incredibly cheap here and I will be stocking up on some before heading home. I also needed shampoo but couldn’t find anything that was a good price.

The market quickly became overwhelming so we left and headed to a shop Tanya knew that had some other things we wanted. Back at home we hung out and watched a bit of TV then got the internet running with our new portable modems and airtime.

Overall, it was a productive day, although the second half much more so than the first.

Friday was a rollercoaster of a day. Tanya wanted to sleep in a bit after all of her travels, so we had Masoud pick us up at 8 to go to ZMCP. We made the round of introductions then got down to business of planning the next few weeks. Since next week the company cars will be in use, we decided to work on the weekend to get some of our malaria cases mapped. We consulted with Makame, who had done some mapping with Stacy a few weeks ago. The previous few days he had insisted that we write a proposal for the mapping project even though Stacy said she had written the proposal and it had been approved. So we wrote something up and found the budget Stacy had come up with and submitted it to “Mr. Manager” for approval. Unfortunately, it was Friday afternoon by that time and all of the men had gone to the mosque for prayers. So we waited for a few hours until they came back. We picked out two shehias nearby to work in on Saturday and Sunday. The proposal was approved and we thought we were ready to leave at 4:30 when Makame told us we needed to submit the budget to the accountant. Okay.

During this time, we lost power and internet in the office. My computer had run out of battery power and I had no way to charge it. Then the accountant said that we filled out the budget incorrectly and needed to reprint it. We spent half an hour finding a place to plug in my computer, change two numbers on a form and reprint it. Then the accountant told us we needed to tell him how much fuel we would need for the fuel voucher. We had no idea how far we had to drive, so how could we determine how much fuel we would need?? Another half hour later, we got that worked out.

Then he told us we needed to write a voucher to get a cash advance to pay the people who would be helping us with the mapping. Another 20 spent trying to print another form. All this time, Tanya and I were wondering why Makame didn’t tell us all of this earlier since he had done this before. So frustrating! We were both ready to strangle him. It was 5 pm on Friday; I was already missing the yoga class I wanted to go to and we hadn’t run any of the errands we wanted to.
Finally, we got everything sorted for the weekend and got our driver to pick us up. We had been feeling trapped by needing a taxi to go anywhere, so we really wanted to buy bicycles. We had Masoud take us to a bike shop. After test riding a few of the one speed beach cruising bikes that they had available, we haggled over prices and finally spend 80,000 Tsh each on a bike (that’s about $53). By that time it was getting a bit dark, but we really didn’t want to spend any more money on taxis so we rode our bikes home for the first time.

What freedom! We can come and go as we please without calling in advance and waiting around. It’s amazing. We both brought our helmets so we are safe; we are definitely the only people on the island wearing helmets. I can’t wait to get out there and ride!

On our way home, we ran into Paulo, who told us power was out all across the island. We had planned to make spaghetti and veggies in a tomato sauce for dinner and had all the things ready, but without power we couldn’t cook. We ended up having peanut butter and crackers since that was the only thing we had that didn’t need cooking.

Around 9 pm Paulo called to say he was going out to meet up with some friends in town at a bar that had a generator. Since he lives nearby, he offered us a ride if we wanted to come. That sounded more appealing than playing cards in the dark like we had been, so we headed out.

We went to a bar called Livingstone’s, which is right on the water and near Mercury’s. Amazingly, it is even more expensive! I ordered a Savannah’s (hard cider) because the cocktails are too expensive, but ended up with mango juice when they were out. The juice is really good here! We heard the food wasn’t that good and is very expensive so we didn’t order anything, which was probably a mistake because our dinner of peanut butter wasn’t really sufficient to tide us over until breakfast. Paulo said he just wanted to stay for an hour and didn’t want to be out too late, which sounded good until we were there past 11:30, and were tired and hungry. Finally, we made it home, where the power was restored and we both immediately went to bed.

I think I have finally adjusted pretty well to the time change. I’ve been sleeping better and awake to hear the call to prayer then fall back asleep pretty easily. It starts to get light around 6 am so I’ve been getting up around 6:30 or so. With so much natural light I haven’t had to set an alarm, which is the one thing I don’t miss about home.

Tanya was arriving at 10 am and I had to go to the airport to meet her since we only have one set of house keys. That meant that I had the early morning at home by myself. I did a bunch of cooking and made rice, chipatis and stir fried veggies; enough for a few meals. I got the water to boil easily this time; I think the burner I was using the other day doesn’t get that hot. Overall it was very successful and I’m happy to have some food to eat now.

The airport is very close by but I had Masoud pick me up because of Tanya’s luggage. We got there early and Masoud taught me a few more words in Swahili while we waited. I now know how to greet people, count to 100, and know the words for some food items. I know kidogo kidogo Swahili (a little) but I am learning pole pole (slowly).
We got to watch Tanya’s plane land from the top of the terminal. That may sound impressive, but I was only on the second story and there are only two air strips so it’s not very far away.

We returned to the house and Tanya unpacked a few things and showered then we were off to ZMCP (the office) to say hello to everyone before they went to lunch. We don’t believe in resting or jet lag here. 😉

It’s good to have someone around who speaks English perfectly to plan work and life with. Some things have changed since Tanya was here last summer so I showed her around a bit and she chatted with people then we made a game plan for the next few days. All next week, ZMCP is doing an active case detection, which means everyone is going to a few villages and will test all of the residents for malaria. If they are positive, they will be treated whether or not they show symptoms. This is a big event that happens every year and I hope to go and see it happen. For us, however, it means that we won’t have access to a car next week to go out and start our mapping project since all cars will be needed to transport the other employees.

Since a professor from Berkeley is coming in a few weeks to give lessons on the GPS software, we thought it necessary to have some data to work with before then. That made us realize that Saturday and Sunday were the only days we would have everything available to us. I guess we will be working our first full weekend here. Hopefully we’ll be able to take a day off during the week.

We stopped at the diplomatic supermarket on the way home and got a large container of water (yay for no more iodine water!) and a few other supplies (including the most expensive peanut butter I have ever seen). The landlord was there when we got back and he had a plumber with him to fix my sink and shower (yay for working plumbing!). We also got two USB modems for our computers so tomorrow we’ll get airtime for them and will have internet at home. Things are coming together slowly, but surely.

After Tanya took a nap, we went to Mercury’s to meet up with the other ex-pats for quiz night, which happens on the last Thursday of every month. Mercury’s is a bar/restaurant named for Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen who was born in Zanzibar. It’s right on the water, near the ferry so you can look out onto the ocean and see the cruise ships and stars. The view is really nice but it’s *super* expensive– $8-10 for a cocktail and $15-20 for an entrée!! I felt like I was back in San Francisco with those prices. I was really glad I ate dinner beforehand because I can’t afford to continue to eat out all the time.

For quiz night, everyone divides into teams and each person puts in 1000 TSH (about $0.75) to play. There are four rounds of questions each with a different theme. The themes were: Zanzibar culture, women, history and religion (which turned out to be just religion) and coffee (the owner of the Zanzibar coffee house came up with these questions). It was the largest quiz night in history, with 52 people participating. I was on a team with 10 other people, but really three guys dominated the conversation because they were way more into it than everyone else. Our team ended up winning and we donated our prize money to a charity that helps one of the local schools.

I met some of Tanya’s friends from last summer as well. There’s Paulo from Italy, David and Shane from Ireland, and Ranil from Hong Kong. Overall, a good time but a later night than I was used to; we got home around 11 pm and I was exhausted.

Things at work calmed down a bit on Wednesday. I had a list of things to do and worked on them in the morning then one of the district supervisors came in with the last month of positive malaria samples. I did the voucher correctly and got the correct signatures, but then he had to wait for an hour while the accountant was at lunch and the bank. But overall it went well and I was able to leave a bit early so I could do a bit more grocery shopping.

I went to some different shops and found flour, dish soap, and some vegetables. The produce is picked very recently here and goes bad pretty quickly so it’s better to buy food for just one or two meals so you don’t have to waste so much.
With that accomplished, I set off for Mbweni ruins, where Stacy told me a yoga class meets from 5-6:30 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Mbweni is the part of the island where I’m staying. It’s sort of like a suburb of Stone Town. The ruins are about a 20 minute walk away, down by the ocean where I went swimming a few days ago. I’m not sure what the building used to be, but it was a 2 or 3 story stone building, right on the water. Some of it has worn away but some portions still exist. A fancy hotel has been built next to it. The yoga class is held in one of the rooms and is taught by a lady from England named Jo. It was a good lesson; my first real work out since arriving and the first time I did yoga in years. Since it was evening a lot of mosquitos were out and even though I applied bug spray twice, I still got a lot of bites that now itch a lot. We did a lot of sun salutations and warrior poses and I practiced a head stand for the first time since childhood. I’m definitely going back.

Here are some pictures of where I practice yoga:

Mbweni ruins

After the class I had dinner with Stacy, her sister, and Claudia at the hotel restaurant. The fish here is really good and super fresh. Then we walked back together and I said goodbye to Stacy and Marni since they are leaving Zanzibar tomorrow and I probably won’t see them. They were a great help making me feel at home during my first few days here and I really appreciate all of their kindness.

Zanzibar is 10 hours ahead of San Francisco time, which means the best time to set up a Skype call is when it’s early morning here and night in SF.  Stacy and I had a call with Bryan and Michelle, our advisors, planned for 7 am ZNZ (Zanzibar) time, or 9 pm SF time.  In order to get to the office by 6:45 to set up, we met at 6:30.  Normally that would be considered early, but I was awake before 5 am and couldn’t get back to sleep.

I love the sounds in the mornings here: the call to prayer, the roosters crowing, the car horns, the people.  It is quite foreign, but not in an unwelcoming way.

We talked to Bryan, Michelle, Kim, and Jaclyn for nearly an hour, then started a very busy day of training.  Stacy wanted to leave at 11 am to enjoy some time with her sister before they go back to the US on Thursday, but even though we worked really hard all morning without a break, we hadn’t accomplish everything we set out to by noon.  We wanted to give additional supplies to some of the district supervisors who were coming in this week, but in order to get their packets completed, we had to print labels and have copies made of the consent forms and questionnaires. We also had to figure out how many labels/barcodes to print for each clinic and what number to start at.  That took much longer than expected.

I also learned data entry, how to fill out vouchers (to pay for the copies), how to pay the district supervisors (with a voucher) and how to do data compare between two entries.  I also made about a hundred filter paper packets which are used to collect blood specimens for genotyping the malaria strains.

I worked pretty much non-stop from 7 am until 4:30, with only a 15 minute break to check my e-mail and eat my last cliff bar (I still don’t have any food at my house).  Stacy left for a while then came back and brought me some rice and curry she made for lunch.  She’s amazing.

Finally, at 4:30 I had enough.  Everyone else was packing up to go home and nearly everyone had gotten there after me so I decided to head home too.

I had Masoud pick me up so I could tell him that the water flow in my bathroom sink is just a trickle and to ask about an internet connection at the house.  Neither of those were resolved today, but TIA; maybe tomorrow.

Since I didn’t have anything for a reasonable meal, I set off to get some food (and likely get ripped off in the process).  There’s nothing like a grocery store here; things are sold in a series of stands on the street where nothing has a price tag and you have to bargain for everything.  I don’t know what anything should cost and everyone will tell you there are two prices: a price for those who speak Swahili and a price for those who don’t.  I need to move from one category to the other.  Each shop sells a small variety of things so I had to go to three places to get oil, salt, rice, spaghetti, vegetables and toilet paper.  I couldn’t find any other spices so it was going to be a rather bland meal.  And I couldn’t find anyone who knew what “dish soap” was so I resigned myself to using Dr. Bronner’s for washing dishes as well as my clothes.

I had planned on making rice and veggies, but then realized that I didn’t have a measuring cup for the rice or water, so I decided to make pasta instead.

The electric stove that we have is very small, about 2/3 the size of one in the US, but still has 4 burners.  However, the knobs only have the numbers 1-6 instead of a marking indicating what is hot and what is cold.  I tried to boil water for 30 minutes and only succeeded in getting the smallest of bubbles to rise when I gave up and just ate veggies.

Do you know how much harder it is to prepare veggies when you don’t have a cutting board and only have one dull knife?  I guess I have a few more things to the “we need” list.  The owner of the house will supply all cooking and eating utensils.

Oh, and did I mention that you can’t drink untreated water because there’s cholera here?  I was planning on boiling some tonight so I don’t have to keep drinking the iodine water (glad I brought those tablets!) but I scratched that idea.  Luckily I brought some lemon lime flavored electrolyte mix to cover the iodine flavor a bit.

Needless to say, I haven’t been eating or sleeping as well as I should, but I’m sure that will improve.  Tanya is arriving on Thursday (her flight was delayed by a day) and once I have someone here, I will be forced to shop and eat better.

On Monday an all day conference was happening between all of key players of malaria control for Zanzibar.  This meeting included ZMCP, CDC, WHO, USAID, PMI, RTI, and several other acronyms that I won’t bother listing.  Knowing that Stacy and I only had two days to train, we met at 7 and took a taxi to ZMCP so she should orientate me a bit before the meeting which started at 8 am.  I was introduced to some of the staff and given a whirlwind account of the important files she has on a flash drive before we were shuttled to a hotel and conference center nearby.

Check out the view from the hotel here:

Ocean View conference

The meeting was eye opening in several ways.  I was given a good introduction to the people I’ll be working with and some of the projects that are going on.  During each presentation, the speaker talked about goals for the next year, the funding needed for achieve those goals, and the gaps in the funding.  I would guess on average, that the gap is 98-99% of the needed funds.  PMI (the President’s malaria Initiative, probably one of the only good things GW did) which has been a big supporter here is hoping to give $45 million to Tanzania next year, much of which will go to Zanzibar.  In the coming months, representatives will meet to discuss which projects should be funded and which should be cut.  I wish they had given a better idea of how past funds have been allocated and clearer program evaluations.

The biggest shock of the day was learning that only ~25-30% of people sleep under bed nets.  And those that do, are using ones that are more than 3 years old and are not as useful because the insecticide has worn out.  And yet no one had a good plan to make bed nets free and universal.  :/

After the meeting, we got a ride back home and I planned to go to the market and buy my first groceries when Stacy called to see if I wanted to go swimming.  Since the market is open late but it’s not safe to swim much past sunset, I decided to forgo food and have a good time.  It’s about a 15 minute walk along a rutted dirt road to this fancy hotel that has a private dock out into the ocean.  For 3000 TSH (about $2) you can swim from the dock in the evening.  I’m not a strong swimmer or much of a water person in general, but I must say: the water here is really nice!  We swam until it started to get dark then walked home and did a bit of grocery shopping.

I bought my first produce: some potatoes, onions and bananas.  I probably got totally ripped off but it only cost $2 so the hell with bargaining.  I’ll learn the real prices later.

The power went out just as we were going to cook dinner at Stacy’s and Claudia’s so we went into town and met up with a friend of theirs instead.  We went to a roof top restaurant in the middle of Stone Town.  It’s the top floor of a fancy hotel and has a great view of the ocean and town.  For me it was kind of a mistake though because jet lag and not sleeping well really hit me and I got very sleepy and was not much fun.  I was very happy to get home at 10:30, knowing that the next day would be another early one.

Feeling refreshed after a long night’s sleep, I started to make a plan for the day: I needed to check out of the hotel, move into the house and get that settled and call Stacy to see if she wanted to get together.  Stacy is an American who has been working at the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program (hereafter called ZMCP) for the past nine months.  She’s going back to New York this week to start medical school in the fall and I timed my arrival in Zanzibar to overlap with her for a few days in order to learn the ropes from her.

Even though I got up not too long after dawn, I took my time packing my things because I didn’t want to call Stacy too early.  However, I needn’t have worried, since everyone gets up early in Zanzibar.  Since 95% of Zanzibaris are Muslim the morning call to prayer is heard around the island at 5 am.  Sadly, by the time I called Stacy at 10, she and her sister, who is visiting, were already headed to the beach.  I told them I would try to meet up later.

When I called Masoud, the driver, to tell him I was ready to leave, he must have been just around the corner because he said he was coming then called me three minutes later when I was not down at reception waiting.  He took me to my new, temporary home which had been cleaned and the lawn manicured overnight.  I had my pick of bedrooms, so I chose the large one in the back with the king sized bed and own bathroom.  There is no other furniture except a wardrobe next to the bathroom, which makes the room a bit sparse.

The thought of hanging out at an empty house by myself all day was not appealing, so I called Stacy and told her I would come meet her.  She gave me the name of a hotel to meet at, which didn’t mean anything to me, but I passed it on to Masoud and we were off.  It was only later that I found out that our 45 minute drive took us to the northern tip of the island!

I was dropped off at White Sands hotel on Kwenda beach where I met Stacy and her sister, Marni.  May and June are the low tourist times because of the rains so the beach was pretty empty.  Stacy and walked along the beach, looking at shells while she explained my responsibilities as the new Plasmotrack coordinator.  Afterward, we went swimming in the wonderfully warm water and ate pineapple that had just been picked and cut.  A little bit of paradise!  Just watch out for the jelly fish!

See pictures here:

Kendwa beach and Ston Town

We drove back just before sunset, which is about 6:30 here and went into Stone Town (hereafter known as “town”) for dinner with Stacy’s roommate, Claudia.  Claudia is from Switzerland and works for RTI, a research organization that works closely with ZMCP.  She’s been in Zanzibar for two years now and is going home in June.

We had dinner at this great Indian restaurant called the Silk Route and had the power go out on us just as dinner was being served.  Luckily, most businesses have their own generators so we didn’t have to spend the entire meal in the dark.

Stacy’s taxi driver, Nassour, drove us home and since it was quite dark I had a hard time recognizing the gate to my house!  I ended up calling Masoud, but the best he could tell me was “it’s the black gate”.  Well, there are several black gates!

I was actually at the right house and confirmed my belief when I could open the gate.

Just as I laid down to read the power went out at my house (this will be a recurring theme I gather) but luckily I have a portable light for my Kindle.  I’m now 10% done with Les Miserables.

Welcome to Zanzibar!  The Spice Islands!  It only took 30+ hours of traveling, but I, and my checked bag, made it safely.

Upon entering the terminal, I had my yellow vaccination card checked to see that I a current yellow fever vaccination.  I’ve never had anyone check before so I’m really glad that I brought that card!  The airport here is pretty tiny.  They don’t even have gates: you just walk down a movable staircase from the plane and enter the terminal.

Going through customs was also interesting.  I filled out the card they gave me as always.  Then they took my photo and scanned all of my fingerprints.  Then the guy stamped my passport and said “ok”.  He didn’t ask for the $100 visa fee.  So I thanked him and went to get my bag.  I guess he saw my previous Tanzanian visa from 2009 and thought that was current.  Not my fault.

Tanya, one of the other students who is coming next week, had contacted her old taxi driver and asked him to pick me up from the airport.  I didn’t see anyone with a sign bearing my name so I waited, and waited.  After the fifth guy asked if I needed a taxi I started to get a bit worried that no one was coming.  I had a cell phone but didn’t have any airtime and didn’t know where to go.  I started to get nervous.

Then Masoud arrived and I breathed a big sigh of relief.  Now I had to tackle finding a place to stay.

Masoud had told Tanya that he knew of a few houses available to rent and that he would take me to see them when I arrived.  So after having traveled so long and not getting much sleep, I spent three hours being driven around the Stone Town area looking for lodgings.  It was exhausting.  I probably looked at 5 places, although I lost count.  At one point Masoud pulled over on the road and talked to another driver.  That driver got out and introduced himself to me as Masoud!  This was the Masoud that Tanya was talking about (he showed me a picture of him and Tanya from last summer).  The other Masoud was one of his employees!

The last house I looked at was really nice and huge, with 4 bedrooms (two master bedrooms), a huge living room/office, separate dining room and large kitchen.  It’s right down the road from where another researcher lives and is in our price range so I jumped on it.  The owner wanted all of the rent in cash before we could move in, so I am still working some details out, but I think this will work.

I got three mosquito bites during these three hours.  I took my second mefloquin (anti-malarial drug) later that day.

By that time it was after noon, or the middle of the night SF time and I was hungry, dirty and tired.  Masoud 1 and 2 took me to a nice hotel in Stone Town (the main city) and I bargained the price of a room from $80 to $50 for the night.  It’s probably worth more since it has air conditioning, a mini fridge, king bed, huge shower and is right on the beach, but I said I was a student and was on a budget. 😉

The shower I took was so nice!  Did I mention that it’s quite hot here and I was wearing jeans the whole time I was driving around? I was pretty sweaty and felt gross from not showering.

I walked down the street to a restaurant Masoud recommended and had curried prawns with rice for lunch while looking out to sea.  A little bit of paradise.

When I got back to my room, I checked my e-mail and talked to Jacob for a few minutes then I went to bed at 4:30 in the afternoon!

I was woken up twice during the evening.  One time because the person who stayed in this room the previous night had ordered dinner and once when a girl came in to spray for mosquitoes.

But now I’ve had 14 hours of sleep and I ready to see some more of the island!

After a 10 hour flight, during which I watched three and a half movies (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I, The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Trader, The Social Network, and part of Happy Feet) and listened to two small children scream for nearly the whole flight, I arrived in Amsterdam where I had a 12 hour layover.

I stowed some stuff in a locker at the airport then took the train to the central station.  It was only a 10 minute ride to downtown, which was great.  Also, the train was very nice and quiet.  If only BART could be like that!

I can count the number of European cities I’ve been to on one hand so I was really eager to get a look at Amsterdam.  I started by taking a canal tour with a group of tourists.  The hour long boat ride on the canals was a great introduction to the city. I can’t believe how the buildings just rise out of the water like that.  Apparently most buildings are built on basically a pile of mud; I really hope they never have an earthquake.

Amsterdam is a very walkable and rideable city.  I nearly rented a bike to ride around for the afternoon, but was later very glad that I didn’t because the local bikers are very aggressive and the tourist bikers don’t know what the hell they are doing.  Plus I got very tired in the afternoon and it would be very difficult to ride and check a map at the same time.  I walked around the highlights of town, had a nice sandwich at a cafe, and enjoyed a park.  I wish fewer people smoked.

I tried to go to the Van Gogh museum, but there was an hour long line just to get in, so I went around the corner to the Rijksmuseum, which has a lot of classical art, like Rembrandt and Vermeer.  The museum, although expensive, was a good size so that by the time I felt like I couldn’t take in much more art, I was at the end.

To treat myself, I got some ice cream and ate in the park near by then decided it was better to just head back to the airport when I started falling asleep in my chair.

You can check out some pictures here:

Amsterdam

From Amsterdam I flew to Nairobi, Kenya (during the flight I watched The Tourist and The Fighter) where I had a two hour layover.   No free internet but I was able to charge one of the cell phones I had been given, which was really great.

Finally from Nairobi, it’s just a one hour hop to Zanzibar!

Thanks to everyone for the send off e-mails! I really appreciate you reading this and wishing me well.  I’m at SFO now, boarding a plane to Amsterdam in 10 minutes!  I have a 12 hour lay-over there so I’ll get to see a bit of the city (thanks to Gene and Kris for recommendations).

The past few days were a bit crazy and hectic, since I still don’t have a housing situation worked out completely, but after a flurry of e-mails I am feeling better about it.  One of my fellow students, Tanya, was in Zanzibar last summer and she has a lot of connections and has been a life saver! She got her taxi driver to pick me up at the airport and he’s going to drive me around on Saturday to look at houses to rent for the time we are there.  I’ll probably spend the first few nights in a hotel until I get more permanent lodgings, but it’s all working out. If you are feeling a bit nervous for me remember: TIA (This Is Africa)!  I love it and can’t wait.

It sounds like we’ll have our work cut out for us since I just got an e-mail that malaria cases on one part of the island are already ramping up.  This is going to be a great learning experience and an awesome adventure.

I’ll miss everyone back home, but will have e-mail access and will try to post as often as possible.

Take care and I’ll let you know if judgement day happens since I’ll be 10 hours ahead. 😉

This is my first blog entry.  I usually don’t think my life is so exciting to warrant anyone reading about on a daily basis, but since I’m about to embark on two months of adventure, I thought I’d give this a try.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to Zanzibar on Thursday and I’ll be there for two months, studying malaria.  Specifically, I’ll be traveling around the island (Zanzibar is off the east coast of Africa and is part of Tanzania) finding people who came to certain clinics last year and this year with a diagnosis of malaria.  For last year’s cases, we have data on day the person came to the clinic, which clinic, their sex and age.  My 3 fellow students and I will then go to the clinics, search through their records, get the person’s name and village they live in then compile all of that info.  Once we have a list of villages, we’ll go to each one, and with the help of an interpreter (they speak Swahili) and the village elder (Sheha in Swahili) we’ll find the people’s houses and take GPS way points at each house.  The goal is to create maps of the island over time to look at where the cases of malaria are occurring and to help inform the government of measures to be taken to decrease cases.  At least that’s the theory anyway.  As is the case with any research, we’ll see how that goes.

I still have three days until I leave, so I haven’t really started packing yet, but there are small piles of things spread through the house that have been getting bigger lately and I should probably start putting those small piles into one big pile.  I started taking my anti-malarial medicine (mefloquin) on Saturday  (This trip, I’m sure I’ll need it!) and I stocked up on DEET and lemon eucalyptus spray as well as sunscreen.  I even took the extra precaution and sprayed my new skirts with the anti-mosquito permethrin.  Hopefully, I won’t get malaria.

Speaking of new skirts: I had to buy some because women dress more conservatively there.  95% of Zanzibaris are Muslim, but as a white person, they don’t expect me to cover my hair or anything.  But it’s not wise to wear tank tops (which is killin’ me) or skirts/shorts above the knee.  Hence, the new clothes.

And now it’s time to savor the last few days in America by watching movies on my wide screen TV, having Little Star pizza and hanging out with my friends.