August 2011 - Tanzania - Kilwa Masoko Dar es Salam

Salaam! Habari za leo?
It’s been already a week in Tanzania, time is flying! Our Swahili has not made great improvements because most people here speak automatically English to us; although this makes things easier for us it’s a bit of a shame because it takes the challenge of having to learn Swahili away.
Our first stop was Kilwa Masoko from where we crossed over to the little island of Kilwa Kisiwani on which there is an amazing archaeological site from the 11th century all build in pure coral! This is another island under the UNESCO World Heritage status. As you can see we are continuing our historic route of Africa and this has been its highlight so far. We will let the pictures speak.

The greatest difference so far compared to Mozambique is that the majority of the coastal population is Muslim. Walking over this little island for 5 hours in the boiling sun without a sip of water and no food since 6 am (it is Ramadan at the moment so finding food during the day in certain places is not possible) while being covered with a scarf for Luisa and trousers for Fred makes you pray to Allah that you make it through the day. Respecting the local culture as good as we could paid off as we were greeted with the local ‘Salaam Maleikum’ instead of the more touristic ‘Mamboo’ and we were asked by many smiling and extremely welcoming faces whether we were Umzungu (white) Muslims because of scarf and beard.
On the campsite we stayed we had our first encounter with a true Masai! Seeing him walk passed made you think immediately that there must be a Halloween party close by but just a second later you realise where you are and that those are actually his normal clothes. He was our private guard. This means that he was leaning to a tree the whole night next to Cruisi with his stick in his hands and a cape to cover him at night... This equals to zero privacy but extreme security, they are the favourite choice for guards here in Tanzania as they are born hunters and apparently very trustable.
Since two days we are in Dar Es Salam. It is a crazy city of 4 million people, as big as Athens, of which 70% live without electricity and running water! It is a friendly city with a weird mixture of extreme poverty and emerging technology reflected in the decent number of skyscrapers. Walking through the streets is an adventure; there are cars everywhere, people, bicycles, tuk tuks and buses in-between, all in some sort of frantic harmony. Masai men with their car-tyre sandals walk next to business men in fancy suits, women in black burkas share the same potholed pavements as Indian women in the most colourful sarees and catholic nuns.
We met a very nice older man Chaky who helped us find a hotel after asking for directions while he was sitting next to a place selling Gyros-Pita in the Mosque street, it turned out he speaks fluent Greek, who would have thought! After having spent plenty years abroad he returned home ‘to be closer to Allah’ as he said. He went out of his way to help us find accommodation and came with us to 3 medical centres to find an appropriate doctor for Fred (his ear had been sore for days not getting better, the doctor prescribed antibiotics). We had dinner with him and he gave us a little tour through the city, so we managed to go to areas where would not have dared going on our own especially at night. This is not a single case, people do all they can to make you feel safe and comfortable, a great thanks to Muslim hospitality! (In non-tourist-affected areas!)

Today our ferry was leaving for Zanzibar (the treat of the trip) but without us on it as have the first (and hopefully last) case of illness. The man is sick. Even after 3 days on antibiotics Fred’s ear was more and more swollen until it reached a stage at which it completely closed and on top of that it was leaking, depending on the day, a white, yellow and sometimes green liquid. Not good at all especially because the pain killers were not fulfilling their duties anymore, so we decided this morning to head to the hospital. A blood examination showed that the inflammation is pretty severe but not too severe to need intravenous antibiotics, this afternoon we saw a specialist and the canal of a hair (!!) in the ear (!!!) got infected by a bacteria. He has got a Hair Follicle infection; of course it couldn’t get more random! Now he is on some heavy duty painkillers and some more antibiotics.
Luisa is playing the nurse and celebrating an early end of Ramadan by enjoying half a kilogram of Middle Eastern heavenly sweets that are on sale everywhere. All this is, in a rather basic YMCA Youth Hostel room (back to student times!) with the loudest generator on this planet just next to our window.

Greeting from Fatima and Abdul!