Sepuka was straight out of the Lion King. I even scampered around the boulders that dot the flat landscape. I felt like a gecko running, weaving, and jumping my way through the gigantic rocks. The rocks I tackled by myself for low and I wasn’t able to climb to the highest points like I had imagined. One of the evenings Alli took me up the “real Pride Rock which dwarfed the little mounds I was running on the previous afternoon and we watched the sun set. It was absolutely gorgeous. We descended and went back to the house and sat in the courtyard and watched the stars, seeing the stars without any light pollution is something that doesn’t happen all that often. Even in rural Kansas you can still see a large city at 40 or 50 miles away. The stars in the Tanzanian interior were without peer.
Day to day activities during our time in Sepuka were always different and never boring. There was constantly something to do. One morning we spent painting the flowers off the concrete walls of Alli’s courtyard. Another afternoon was spent watching a soccer match and playing basketball with Alli’s counterpart Msukuya and his friends. Alli provided me with a grand tour, stopping at the small sit-downs and shops along the way. We went into the homes of Alli’s coworkers that work at the health clinic and the primary school.
I even went out and played volleyball with young men who are involved with Alli’s after work program. She set up a daily/nightly volleyball match to keep some of the younger men out of trouble and from frittering away their money. It was pretty awesome to see a handmade net and had chiseled dirt court and play a game (with mostly correct rules) with a group of a dozen young men. It was even more fascinating and impressive that none of them had played the game before and this routine didn’t exist until Alli implemented the game into the town. She created something entirely positive that was nonexistent before her arrival. I was really proud of her and she should be proud of herself. I attempted a “Piga Smash!” also know as a spike, but failed miserably and had the guys laughing after my whiff.
We were invited to a Muslim wedding and walked a few kilometers to the married couple’s house where we posed for photos on the bed (which sounds weirder than it was…). I asked Alli why the bride to be didn’t look to be enjoying herself – she had say on the bed dressed to the nines and looked down at her feet with a frown for the entirety of the time we were there. Alli explained that it is customary for the bride to show no emotion on her wedding day before joy or excitement would be interpreted as expressing her eagerness to have sex with her husband. We ate dinner with them and some of the other guests and then went on our way.
The last night in Sepuka the doctor and nurses threw a party for me across the street from Alli’s house. We spent the evening eating and drinking and dancing. They set up a PA system and had the audio turned up to level “11” for the entirety of the evening. The musical selection was a bit slim and being an American I think they busted out the Shania Twain cassette especially for me. I was thrilled. All joking aside though, a night of dancing was a great stress reliever and I completely dropped my inhibitions. Anyone that knows me understands that I’ll occasionally get out on the dance floor, but it’s fair from one of my favorite past times. However, on this evening I danced my little heart out until my feet hurt and my brow was covered in sweat. There was a dance circle where we took turns strutting our stuff and at one point the doctor cleared the floor and implored Alli and I to show them how we dance in the states. So there we were surrounded by Tanzanians as we spun about and stepped in out of beat time for a few Shania tracks – definitely not a situation that will soon be forgotten!
The following day we loaded up and went back to Dar for the evening to meet up with Alli’s friends for cocktails on the roof of the Holiday Inn in downtown before catching a ferry for the island of Zanzibar.
Zanzibar was awesome. We snuck through security upon arrival with Alli saying something in Swahili and me attempting to hide from customs behind a post. Somehow it worked and they were satisfied that both of us for citizens of Tanzania and I didn’t need to pay the fee for a visa. I promptly bought a pair of impeccably crafted knock off Ray Bans and went to find our resort. The first few days and nights we spent in relative seclusion on a self-contained resort that butted up against the Indian Ocean. Much time was killed by the pool and chasing sand crabs (well I chased sand crabs while Alli drank margaritas by the pool…) . We happened upon an outfit from South Africa shooting the final episode of a reality television show called “Charlie’s Cake Angels.” Supposedly the show is supposed to be the next best thing and documents a group of women who create extravagant cakes. Who knows, maybe we’re in the background in some of the scenes, but I can’t find any information online confirming the show even exists. We had dinner on the beach one evening and more or less tuned out and did nothing for a few days. It was a welcome relaxation from the hectic travel schedule.
Zanzibar’s Stone Town district is heavily slanted toward tourism, but was really awesome. The streets are like a labyrinth, very narrow and winding. Many of the doors are hand chiseled and have very ornate patterns and decorations on the entire surface. We purchased gifts for me to bring back to the states and explored. We drank can juice and ate the catch of the day in the wharf area and watched the local island boys run and jump off the pier and dive into the bay as the sun went descended past the horizon.
We visited a local watering hole called “Freddy’s.” This wouldn’t be notable except the namesake of the bar was none other than Freddy Mercury! The bar was decked out with photographs of the singer and it was awesome in the most ridiculous way possible. My only regret is that I didn’t purchase a shirt as a keepsake. We had a wonderful dinner at an Indian restaurant our last night on the island and the last night of the trip. We sat in the upper level of the open air restaurant and took our time eating, filling the off time with conversation. We must have been in there for 3 hours and it went by in an instant. I feel like in the states we often rush our meals and look at dinner as a means to an end, but it was nice to just sit about and take everything in and enjoy eachother’s company.
All in all it was a wonderful trip and I would encourage anyone considering traveling abroad to consider the often overlooked continent of Africa. I can’t speak for the other countries seeing as I only visited one, but Tanzania was beautiful, cheap, and at trip I won’t ever forgot. I’m owe a lot to Alli for her hospitality and assistance in making this trip happen.
(for more pictures check out this album Alli posted on facebook….)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.199545316761116.48473.100001169467484&l=fcc19b86c7&type=1
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