Lena: To Zanzibar By Motor Car

Posted 05:57 AM, July 27, 2006, by lenawine

My favorite picture from my trip to the Coast:

Day 29-39 Mtoto 193.jpg

As part of our language practice, we visited a seaweed farm in Zanzibar. After 'touring' their one room facility, where they store a huge pile of seaweed to dry, we went out to the beach to see how and where they harvest the seaweed. As he showed us how they attach the seaweed to something resembling a very low clothesline, a crowd of children began to gather around. I am not sure whether they were interested in learning more about seaweed farming or were just fascinated by a group of white students listening to a lecture in Swahili. I opted to stay onshore while some of my classmates ventured out into the water to see the seaweed growing firsthand.

I quickly befriended this little girl (pictured above), or perhaps she befriended me and promptly attached herself to me. She never left my side and pretty much refused to give up my hand. Whenever I wasn't paying attention to her, or my hands weren't free, she would bury her head in my skirt. For those of you who know me well, you probably know that this was neither expected nor warranted. I never was able to figure out her name, in part because she had the habit of repeating everything I said: "unaitwa nani?"; "unaitwa nani?" she echoed back, instead of answering with her name.

As the crowd of children increased in size, they became more and more difficult to manage, so I began trying to teach them some of the simple Swahili songs and games I had recently learned. As I became more overwhelmed with all the children literally hanging on me, I reverted back to my familiar roots and began to teach them how to play some American games. We started with Ring around the Rosy and Follow the Leader, which went over relatively well.

When I tried to teach them how to play Duck, Duck, Goose however, I failed miserably. I'm still not sure if this was related to the age group or my poor Swahili abilities. I got them all to sit in a circle and then with another student demonstrated: "bata, bata, bata, bata" - I tapped each one of them on the head. All eyes were focused on me as they tried to figure out what I could possibly be doing. When I came to my fellow student, I called out GOOSE! and then began to run. When I turned around, not only was my American friend chasing me, but so were all my little Tanzania friends. I think my professors were all very amused.

After all the other students finally returned from the excursion out into the ocean, we headed back to regroup at the bus. Most of the children were disappointed to see us go, but my little friend seemed more adamant than most and kept hugging my legs. I finally allowed her to escort me to the bus; as we walked by people's homes, I wondered whether she belonged to one of them. I began to worry that perhaps the people we greeted as we passed would think I was trying to kidnap this sweet young girl.

Would she be able to find her way home if I led her too far from where I had found her?
Was someone worried about her right now?
Had she been accompanied to the beach by a sibling perhaps?
I began to wonder what her home life was like: was she so attention-starved that she attached herself to me of all people? When I said goodbye and gave her a hug, she made me it very difficult for me to put her down. She promptly proceeded to stand outside my bus window and wave. I told the other kids around to get her to move because I was actually afraid that when the bus started to move, she might get hurt. I almost took her home. Don't worry, all I actually took was the above picture.

Small town near the seaweed farm we visited:
Day 29-39 190 Palm Trees.jpg