LoSarian in Zanzibar!!

So now we have 8 days in Africa and its time for my actual break. What better way then going to Zanzibar!

Zanzibar is a small island off of the coast of Tanzania, which is like the Euorpean Hawaii. We first spent 2 days in Stone Town. A few highlights:

Stone Town is this absolutely amazing looking city. A bunch of hold, tall historic buildings and winding roads everywhere. Combine that with palm trees and beach and you have the coolest town ever.

I explored pretty much every part of the town. It was really interesting how the church and the mosque of the town were litterly right next to eachother. There were a lot of cannons everywhere. We went to the local market and bought this really strange looking fruit. There were little things that were fruit but looked like bugs inside. They tasted like onions. Weird. I also stopped by the meat section which absolutely discusting. Bunch of meat slabs hanging everywhere. The salers kept slapping their meet as if I was going to take a cow's thigh back to my house.

We toured a palace turned museum which was very enlightning on the history of Stone Town. At the top was an AMAZING view of the entire town and the beach. We watched the sunset from their in the most amazing cloud cover.

That day I got really good at my bargaining ability because I was really sick of people pestering me to buy stuff. The secret is that I simply would stick to a really low price and never go up, at all. It works wonders.

With that bargaining power, I was able to 50 door decorations for my entire floor. They are bannana leafs glued together to make pictures, all African. I got 50 of them for $50, which was in my budget. So now I'm going to need a gel pen and write everyone's names on them. I'm also going to draw arrow's pointing at parts. So for instance, Dillon won't just have Dillon, he'll have a arrow pointing to a spot on the cheetah with the title Dillon: The 32nd Cheetah Spot. I just love thinking about it.

We went to the fish market afterwards to pick up dinner. I ordered shrimp and lobster for $3. Yummy!!

The others in the group wanted to find hookah, but they tried for about 3 hours, and never got it. It was an impossible struggle.

The next day after a really good complimentary breakfast (eggs, fruit, yogurt, toast, and tea) we headed up for a spice tour. Random trivia knowledge: Zanzibar is known as the spice island.

We loaded 9 people into the 7 passanger van and headed up to a spice farm. There we got to see all sorts of different spices. Strangely enough, I got a runny nose that day. So I could barely smell anything at all. But I definately could smell the lemon grass, that smelled exactly like fruity pebbles. Yummy, fruity pebbles :) We saw a kid climb up a cocunt tree and I got to drink an entire cocunut. I also got to taste a bunch of really good fruits. There was this one fruit Apple something that tasted just like apple pie. We learned how vanilla was produced, and why it is so expensive as well. At the end we got to try some shots of tea, which tasted great.

Then we drove to the north part of Zanzibar. Our guide loved American music all 80's and he sang along on the drive. I decided to chime along as well on my favorite "What is Love?" Ya, I really got into that one.

We saw a really cool squiggly cocunt tree on the way as well.

We got pulled over twice from police because we had too many people in the vehicle. I was sitting in the front, but amazingly, I don't think I messed anything up. Our driver was really upset, and for a long while we thought we were going to be left in the middle of a rainforest because we were an illegal vehicle. Luckily, we were allowed to get to the resorts.

The tricky thing about Zanzibar van and taxi drivers is that they get commisions if they get us to go to specific hotels. Our driver kept trying to get us to go to one hotel, we kept telling him no, but he kept pushing. It was very strange.

We ended up at a bungalo right next to the beach, with a look of the entire ocean. It's amazing.

AT THE BEACH

So I have really dedicated myself to spending some alone time in front of the beach, to cool down. I've had some interesting encounters none the less.

So I walked across to check out the beach and was crossing back to go back to the hotel. I decided to go through all of the buildings. At one point I noticed 5 absolutely amazing looking women. They were all reading (so hot)! So I decide I would walk by that building, as it was in that direction anyway. Well it ends up after I cross them I end up at a dead end fence. There's a tractor on my left squeezed into a very sketchy place and a garden shet on my right, all surrounded by fence. I debate for a minute, and decide to casually, and cooly, act as if I meant to come to this dead end and turn around. Well at that point all 5 women had put down their books and were stairing at me. Then they started laughing at me. I asked them where they were from and they said Germany. And so that was the begging of that meeting. I meet up with them again later.

I sneak into another beach resort and fall asleep on their outdoor beds after going for a swim. At sunset I ordered a milkshake and watched the sun set, it was grand. At one point while I was watching the sunset, a man decided to take a shower right behind me, so I watched the sunset while getting splashed by water from above (the shower) and below (the waves).

Our group ate dinner together and then decided to take a 45 minute break before meeting again. I decided to go walk on the beach at night, with the moon reflecting in the water.

A little ways down the beach, I crossed a women who greeted me. I told her "hello". I told her my name was LoSarian, and she told me her name was Shania. She then told me "I want to suck you". At that point it was very weird. I couldn't figure out if this was a prostitute or a desperately horny person. She asked me where I lived, which I didn't tell her, and that she wanted to go there. I then told her that I do not pay money for sexual favors, it's wrong. At that point she said "No big money, just little money". At that point I was pretty sure she was a prostitute. So I have never really spent much time with prostitutes in the past, so this was something new for me. I sat a few feet in front of her and told her that she was a better person than that. I told her she should try to get money in a more constructive way. I told her that she is more valuable than that. I kept saying you are worth more than that, the whole time she kept saying "I understand" and "I want to suck you". I found out that she is a message therapist during the day, and just wants more money. At one point she asked me whether I wanted a half an hour or an hour. I just kept trying to tell her "You are a better person than that, I don't want you physically, you should do something more". Well, she took this as me trying to get a cheap price somehow and she kept saying back. I'll give a low price. Eventually, she said she would do it for free, seriously. I really am a hard bargainer. But I still told her no, you are more important that and got up to leave. She told me to sit down next to her. I sat down and tried talking to her more. She then put her head on my shoulder and her hand on my knee. I told her, no, you are makeing me uncomfortable. I then told her I am going to leave and began to get up. Then she straight out groped me. It was such a disturbing feeling.

Well I learned more than I wanted to about sex and prostitution that night. I think I will stop trying to instill value into prositutes so much, and if I do, I will definately keep a bit more distance. But it really makes you wonder, how do you define prostitution. At one point she said she would do it for free, but I definately felt that there was still some nasty prostitution going on. (Not that I ever contemplated saying yes, but it made me wonder what is the difference between this and kissing a girl who wants to kiss you and doesn't ask for money)

Back at the restaurant we gave our week and a half late Secret Santa gifts. Ashley was my secret Pal. I wrote her a clue on a piece of paper:

Dear Ashley,

You are a good SPEAKER.

Your secret pal,
Elliott Hedman

So she looked at it and was like um, thanks Elliott. I told her that she really was a good public speaker. And there was like 7 minutes of silent confusion. Ben knew what was going on because he saw me plant the clues.

I told Ahsley, "You can LOOK FOR more meaning in there if you think about it" and Ben told her "You just really need to EXPLORE your thoughts".

Ashley was like, does that mean you think I'm a good singer? :) I told her "If that's what you want to get out of it".

Finally, the group persuaded her that she should look at the music speakers in the building. Behind one of the speakers I put a hint.

Don't have RESERVATIONS, just look.

She quickly found the no reservation sign. The last clue was tricky.

It said Your gift can be found Jubon's Dream.

Ashley had a a very confused look on her face for a second, but then Teju, in his excitement yelled it's in the boat and ran over to it, before Ashley could thing. At the boat there was a rock, and Ashley asked is this my gift. I told her if she wants it to be. Eventually, she found my gift.

I had gotten her close tribal friend Zuwate to write her a letter in English and Swahilli about what she thought about Ashley. I then sewed it onto a blanket myself :) It was a great way to remember such a special moment.

During the Secret Santa a thon, I had put on a cheap plastic crown and was giving everyone christmas crackers to pop, like my family does. I also had one of those blow horns that goes out really far and makes funny noises every time you blow in my mouth. At this exact moment when I was blowing really hard and obnoxiously, the German girls walked by (all 5 of them). They all waved at me. Wow!

After gifts, Ben came up with a game where we wrote down all the things that are worrying us. I had a lot, mainly about unresolved things back at school. (You know who you are!). And then we took those worrys and threw them in the ocean.

I then took another walk on the beach alone. Well Shaquila was still there and she came up to me. She tried grabbing my hands and putting them on her ass. I told her no, I had to get to my friends, and told her she needs to change. She told me that all she wanted was $10. I told her no and walked on. I found a cave spot that was really neat and sat there and looked at the water for a good time just looking at the ocean. And that's where we left off.

I'm going to go spend the rest of the day just sitting on the beach, writing in my journal, and meditating. It's going to be fun.

I hope you all have a fun rest of the break, and I am sure I will see you all soon.