Visit turned overnight stay

Something that I have been looking forward to doing while in Zanzibar is meeting up with my Kenyan friend’s niece. Irene lives and works here as a teacher.

We finally connected and I was able to visit her home and the other teachers that she lives with.

She prepared me a delicious meal and there were many great conversations. I brought her some photos of her Uncle and new Aunt’s wedding that I attended this past spring in Seattle. We were having so much fun talking and her friend was teaching me to make chapattis that by the time I decided to leave it was quite late.

A couple teachers attempted to escort me home by dala dala (local transport) but we ended up failing. We successfully made it to town but when we tried to transfer to a dala dala that goes to my area we discovered that they had stopped for the night. So we ended up getting back on the one that brought us to town and returned to the teacher’s quarters for the night. We did stop for some tasty avocado juice on the way back.

Irene was very kind and she shared her bed with me and some sleeping clothes. Teacher Dennis was even thoughtful enough to go buy me a toothbrush. Plus we were able to do a little bit more visiting and I had the privilege of experiencing what it is like to stay in the teachers’ quarters. In the morning I rode the bus with the children to school and ended up spending the day at school.

After school was out I rode the school bus with Irene and the children on the route that stops by where I am living so that she will know how to get to my place. It is just about impossible to give people directions since there are so many tiny little streets and paths. We were able to look at all of the wedding photos that I had on my computer. She had fun pointing out her different relatives.

Always an adventure.