An Unforgettable February Break

Time is really speeding up now, snowballing downhill it seems. Three months from today we will be back in Grand Rapids, reuniting with Migo, and preparing for 4th of July family celebrations.

But first, let us share how life has been here for the past couple of months. Zalina had a school break of about a week in February, so we took a truly magical trip to Tanzania, including the island of Zanzibar. It was the first time that all 3 of us were experiencing a new country together.

We left Uganda on a Saturday, splurged on the Kenya Airways lounge that included air conditioning, "free" food and drinks (including adult beverages), and Netflix for a 4-hour layover in Nairobi, and landed in Kilimanjaro airport in the early evening. We had booked an "airport hotel" and were so pleasantly surprised that it was a cozy lodge where we could catch glimpses of Mr. Kilimanjaro from the pool area. Our wonderful guide Godson picked us up on Sunday and we made our way over 200 kilometers that day, taking in the scenery of Northeastern Tanzania, stopping for lunch at Lake Manyara National Park, snoozing a bit and finally arriving at our hotel where every room, including ours, is perched on the edge overlooking the majestic Ngorongoro Crater. It was packed with large groups of tourists from all over the world, including big groups of older Americans, so that was definitely something new for us compared to our tourist experiences in Uganda where the Ebola outbreak at the end of last year seemed to have impacted an already struggling pandemic impacted tourist sector. We enjoyed seeing Masai dancers and a nice dinner along side the excited energy of the other tourists.

Monday we arose to see the sunrise over the crater, ate a quick breakfast and then Godson picked us up for our game drive and day in the crater. We made our way to the one-way road that descends into the crater and encountered elephants crossing the road directly in front of the car while we were still near the hotel grounds. We considered this a sign of good luck and we were right! The day was spent with loads of different animals including zebra, which we hadn't yet see in Uganda, two large groups of lions including roaring and fighting over food, rhinos in the wild (we had only seen them in the Uganda sanctuary), and so many more. We enjoyed lunch outside with a bush picnic and continued safari and enjoying pretending like we were in the Lion King for the afternoon. We finally made our way up the ascending road out of the crater and it is VERY steep; definitely had some Romancing the Stone moments when we looked waaaaaaay down over the edge. Godson was a very experienced guide and suggested checking out a few areas on the way back to the hotel where he sometimes saw animals and we stumbled upon a HUGE group of elephants- we counted almost 50- and then also a pretty big group of giraffes. It was incredible. 

Godson picked us up very early again on Tuesday and drove us about 4 hours to the airport in Arusha. Again, there were so many tourists from the U.S. and Europe and we enjoyed listening to accents and other languages and trying to guess where people were from. Most people were doing the same thing that we were doing-waiting to board a tiny, tiny, Cessna to fly to Zanzibar. Noah was excited about this and Shannon was....not. But, we made it. Our plane had 2 pilots that we could have tapped on the shoulder if we needed to from the third row; and then 12 passengers total, including the 3 of us. The views of the Indian Ocean were truly stunning, hinting at what was awaiting us in Zanzibar.

The next five nights/four days were a wonderful introduction to what Zanzibar has to offer. We stayed in Stonetown and enjoyed navigating (and getting lost) in the maze of tiny streets with gorgeous doors and unique architecture. The population of Zanzibar is nearly 99% Muslim, so this was a great opportunity to learn more and observe the cultural impact. Though Uganda's population has a significant minority that are Muslim (14%) where we have all been more exposed to visible mosques, audible, daily calls to prayer, and celebrations such as Ramadan that is currently ongoing, it was interesting to observe that Tanzania has a more substantial portion of the population that is Muslim- 35%.

In any case, we soaked up the sun, 90 degree weather, Indian Ocean, and culture in Zanzibar. We made it to the Northeast side of the island for snorkeling and swimming with sea turtles in a sanctuary, took a spice tour, toured a historic slave market, visited the Freddie Mercury Museum, fit in several times of relaxing at the hotel pool where we met 5 people from our hometown of Grand Rapids, and ate wonderful food in scenic places including the rooftop above the city at Zanzibar Coffee House, in an ancient, stone building with live music at the Secret Garden, and of course overlooking the ocean a couple of nights. It was an unforgettable trip and Shannon is already daydreaming of how part of a future sabbatical might include some more time in Zanzibar.