First week alone. Kanda, my housemate left home. I gave my houseboy a week off. What a change. I love it. I admit that living with the boys has been fun. But living alone after 11 months, this is what I call life. I can wake up when I want to and go to bed when I want to. I can even walk in my underwear outside from my room. Well, that amuses the neighbours but I don’t care.

On Monday I cleaned the house and went shopping. I bought everything I thought I would need during one week for cooking. I have invited some of my friends over and we have had a good time. I found some sausages from the town supermarket so it has been a heaven to eat something else than fish after a long while.

Living alone has some disadvantages. Everyone thinks that I am lonely. Neighbours come in and ask if they can do anything to help me. They don’t usually leave until I let them do something. Nowadays the boy next door waters the garden for me.

We have a primary school nearby. Kids have a break at ten. They all come to my house to get some mangoes. We have some mango trees on the yard so they are more than welcome to eat them. They are now sharing them with baboons that take their share in the mornings.

After climbing trees and playing at the yard for few hours they come in to ask for water. It takes almost a half an hour to serve for 20 kids for water. It still amazes me that it is all they get since waking up and before going home for evening meal. And let me tell you that my water is pure. Most of the time they drink from the lake, where the water is contaminated and full of crocodiles.

Since my going home is getting closer I have started to clean my closets. I have given out most of clothes and shoes already. I never thought how big of a hassle it would cause. I thought I managed to get rid of unwanted beggars after giving out all the shoes, but no. This has caused even more problems. Every day at least ten people come to me and say give me my shoes, give me my shirt, or give me my ball. I should not have given out anything. I should have just left it all at the house for someone else to give out. At least I learned my lesson. Never give out anything. They learn that Mzungu (white man) will give you always something.

Tomorrow, on Saturday I will have my farewell party for my friends. I have invited only few people but as we know, when Mzungu has a party, everyone will come. So let’s see how many we are tomorrow.

I know that everyone will expect to get food. That is ok. The only challenge is the amount. I don’t know how much I should cook. Then another thing is that we have no plates for everyone. Fortunately Africans are used to eating with their hands so that won’t be a problem.

After the weekend I will go and visit my friend in Bukoba. It means an overnight boat trip on Lake Victoria. Last time I did it, I had a food poisoning. I didn’t really enjoy it. I hope this time will be better.

After coming back from Bukoba I am heading towards Dar. My plan is to drive through country to enjoy my last days in Tanzania. As we all know things happen when you are on the road. I just hope I will be safe. Until next time!

Almost as strong as Honka

I started a girls basketball practise two months ago. I invited all who were interested. We had eight girls at the beginning. When the word got out the number started increasing. Today we have almost 30 girls in the team.

I took two of the players from my basketball team to coach with me. We are quite organised nowadays.

We practise Monday through Friday from 4 PM to 6 PM. Of course you have to remember that we are in Africa so the starting time is quite flexible. In spite of the starting time we are always stopping at six. Girls are responsible of cooking for their families so they can’t be late.

The youngest player is eleven while the oldest is 18 years old. Two of them have already kids. This doesn’t slow them down. They usually bring their babies with them to the field. While we practise babies lie in the sun and stay quiet. Sometimes they have some neighbouring kid taking care of them during the practise.

When we started practising most of the players played bare foot. Some were wearing a track suit, some had a skirt or a kanga (wrap around) on, but none was wearing shorts. Today all of them are wearing shorts. They still come to practise wearing skirts but when they enter the field they take the skirt of.

After first month of practise we gave them the shoes that were donated by Finnish friends. For some reason we had about ten new players wanting to join us. We haven’t given out more shoes but every day we get new players who come and ask for shoes. Some have stayed longer, some stopped coming after not receiving the shoes.

The percentage of those who have stayed after receiving is quite high. Only five players have disappeared after receiving the shoes. There is not really anything we can do about it. Another minor problem is our two players whose older brothers took their shoes. In Africa this is how it goes. It doesn’t help if we tell them to take them back. They can’t really do anything. And if we give them another pair, they disappear just like the first ones.

Our team looks quite nice nowadays. They are proudly wearing Honka uniforms without knowing that they are from Finland. Since everything here is bought second hand, they think that they are just like anybody’s uniform.

Coaching here is almost the same as it is anywhere else. Coach is a teacher and responsible of many things among teaching the sports skills. The different culture just brings some challenges which have to be overcome by lot of imagination.

Since the uniforms are sleeveless just like all basketball shirts, it would be quite suitable to wear something underneath. Well, bras are not very common here so you won’t see them really at the court either. African ladies are well-equipped so to me it is almost impossible even to think about playing sports without wearing bras if I was them. Slowly I have tried to encourage them buy some bras and some have managed to find something to put under the uniform. Few days back I decided to change it and went and bought some bras and tops, gave them to my friend, and she handed them forward. Maybe few of them have the right size to wear but honestly there isn’t much you can do about that either.

Now that we have organised ourselves, I made a little brochure about our programme. I gave each player one copy to take it home to show it to their parents. None of them speak English so players were asked to translate it to them. The brochure had information about our goals; how we try to educate girls in all areas of life through sports. How they will learn to work with others, and how to control their emotions which appear. Of course we wanted to emphasize on the fact that those who participate in sports are also more active in studies, get better results and go for further studies.

After few days we started to get some feedback. Parents seemed to be happy about our goals. Only thing which they wondered was how is it possible that those who attend sports get better results, since their daughter stopped going to school after we started practising. What a surprise! We have to work on that.

These cultural differences make you appreciate what we have back home. At the same time I can’t but admire the women in this country. Where to start? Bus ride from town costs 20 cents. They can’t afford it. Yet they come everyday and walk 12 km to the practise and back home. They have to be home right after practise so that they can cook for their families. Dinner has to be ready at seven. They have those basketball shoes which we have given plus black walking shoes for school. They usually come wearing school uniforms and walk or run home after putting them back on, on top of the sports gear. They are responsible of their own laundry. Since they go home late and leave to school very early, they don’t have time to wash their sports gear between practises. Sometimes they do it anyway, and come to practise wearing wet clothes. Shoes are always clean. They keep washing them weekly. If they don’t dry for the next practise they come bare foot. It isn’t uncommon at all.

Facilities and equipment is another thing. All courts are outdoors. Depending on which part of the country you live, but all go through two rainy seasons. Mwanza happens to have quite mild rainy season. It is going on right now. It rains almost everyday. The water comes like from the shower. It makes everyone wet instantly. Then after an hour it stops just like any shower, and we continue the practise. There are days when it rains all day. Fortunately it happens not so often.

The court we are playing on is pure cement. It is in a good shape. We even have two baskets which are on the correct height. There are no socks but squares are painted on the board. They are almost at the right place even.

We are using those balls which we received from Finland. We have ten all together. Half of them are men’s and half children’s size. It doesn’t slow us down. The balls are divided among players to keep them safe. When ever I walk by the court I see local village kids using them. This way they will only last two months, but at least they are all in good use.

Since I am leaving home quite soon, I decided to invite my players to my house to watch some basketball. Thanks to Tuomas, we have some college and NBA games at the house nowadays. Two of the girls had seen a real basketball game on TV before. Others had never seen it. We had a blast. I even showed them one women’s game Finland against Slovenia, just to let them see how far they can go. They were all excited. Now they are all dreaming about becoming stars and getting out of the country. I am not so sure that this helped to achieve our goals in teaching them how important it is to attend school.

Inviting people over and not offering food is out of question in this country. Well, cooking for 22 people isn’t an easy task. Fortunately I had my houseboy helping me. We cooked for three hours and thought we had enough food. As it turned out, these ladies aren’t dieting that is for sure. We had 5 kilos of rice, two big bowls of beans, 5 kilos of futari (local dish made of cassava) and 3 kilos of meat. Nothing was left. I didn’t even get to eat at all. That didn’t bother me though. Seeing them eat like they had never seen food made me not eat. My portion would have been less than 10 percent of theirs. I can’t believe where all that food went. They are all tiny and they ate portions at least six times of their stomachs.

Having them over was fun. It was great to see them wearing their best clothes instead of seeing them in school uniforms or sports gear. It was also fun to see how interested they were to see how a “white man” lives. We had hand-washing ritual and prayed before the meal just like they do home. But they had problems of using our toilet, since they are only used to the standing type of toilets. Well, let me just tell you that I needed to clean toilet after they had left.

I will be coaching “my team” two more weeks. Then I will be gone. It is sad to say goodbye this soon since we have just started. I am little worried what will happen to them. Those shoes and balls will be worn out after three months. They don’t have any sponsors and parent can’t afford to buy them anything. I hope they will find someone who is interested in helping them. Otherwise the programme will stop before it even started.

Anyway, thanks again to all those who donated sports equipment for us. They are really in use now. You are more than welcome to come and see the happy faces which are a result of your own generous action. Karibu!

I have 44 days left in Africa. I don’t know if I should feel happy or sad. I can’t believe that my time here is coming to an end. I have had the best 11 months here and time has gone by so fast. Of course there were times when I wished some things from home, but honestly I couldn’t have asked for a better year.

What am I leaving behind? The people whom I have met over the year are probably the only thing which I will miss. There is no way of describing how different people are here. I have travelled a lot around the world and met many wonderful people. But there is no way to compare them to these. The kindness and attitude which they have to others, no matter who they are, what they look like or where they come from is something that is so hard to understand to someone who comes from a culture where the education, the background and the way you look means a everything.

Another thing which I hope that I have learned is how to value the family. And this doesn’t mean your parents and siblings. African extended family might include everyone you know. It doesn’t stop to people you live with. This family always comes first.

There is no hurry in Africa. This phrase describes a lot of African life. I think I have adopted it quite well by now. When ever I have a meeting with someone I know the time it is just an estimate. It took me a long time not to be angry or even disappointed if the other person comes few hours late. Nowadays even I go late everywhere. I might face some problems when I return to Finland.

Having a houseboy has been a learning experience to me. I know myself that I can never have a servant in my house. I don’t know how to be a boss and still eat at the same table with them. Our houseboy is older than me. He is supposed to do the laundry, cook and clean the house for us. At first it felt nice not to have to do anything. Nowadays I do my laundry due to two reasons. It is a nice way of relaxing plus it is a guarantee that at least the remaining bras will stay in shape.

The other things which we share are cooking and cleaning. I cook once or twice a week to give a rest day for our houseboy, and to have a change in our daily menu. I am in charge of the toilet cleaning also, since I have not succeeded to teach him how to clean an European toilet, and living with two guys makes me do it more often that they feel it is necessary.

The weather in Mwanza has been great. I will return to Finland during the darkest and coldest period. I will have a cultural shock for sure. It is now a raining season in Tanzania. This means that it can rain for days or we can have daily showers. In any case it is a nice change for the normal hot weather.

In general I have enjoyed the weather here, especially here in Mwanza where I live. The days are hot but nights the temperature comes down to give you a good night sleep. Totally opposite from the coastal weather where the nights and days are humid and there is no way to sleep at all without air-conditioning which is a rare sight there.

Being in the sunny Africa would make you think that I am totally tanned and can’t burn my skin anymore. It might be funny but I burn my nose constantly still. I am tanned or at least tanner than I was when I left Finland. But the disadvantage of being a white person is that the skin is not meant for the sun. It will still get burn every now and then. The biggest difference is the attitude toward the sun. In Finland I use to go out always when ever the sun was out. Sitting in the shadow was against all my principals. Here it is different. When ever I see a shadow I go there. I have adopted even the African walking style, always nearly in the ditch under the trees. Even a second in the shadow will be worth of changing the side on the street.

Things that I won’t miss

The mosquitoes. I have had two malarias here. The first was over in two days but the second took more time. First medicine didn’t work so they gave injections. After that didn’t cure it I had to go for another medicine. It took three weeks to cure it but I got it out of the system.

Another thing with mosquitoes is the sleeping under the net. It might seem a small thing for you but tucking your net under the mattress night after night when you are tired and wish just to crash to bed makes you miss your own bed where you can just jump when ever you feel like it.

Not to give you a wrong idea about the mosquitoes. There aren’t really that many of them. I think we have more mosquitoes in Finland than here. The problem is me getting the reaction from them. It doesn’t matter if it is a mosquito, tsetse fly, spider or any other insect; I seem to get reactions which nobody else gets. And I can’t leave them alone. I scratch them until my skin bleeds and that is the end of my modelling career.

I have to admit that I won’t miss the local standing style toilets. They are usually cleaner and quite convenient but still when ever there is a sitting toilet it makes happy.

Food is something I probably will not miss at all. The traditional dishes – all five of them -  are tasteless. Having a meal is very rarely an enjoyment. So those days when I decide to cook, it might be more expensive, but at least I can say that I liked what I ate. Honestly our houseboy is a good cook. But eating the same fish day after day will make you hate the fish eventually.

What have I learned?

I think of my self quite clean person. I like to keep my room clean and I appreciate if people around me do the same. In our house here we have a plain concrete floor. The windows are just nets keeping the mosquitoes out. We keep our front door wide open which invites lot of crawling things to visit us daily. Due to these reasons I have learned that the house can never be as clean as one would hope. I have stopped worrying about it.

My attitude towards every little thing that moves has changed a lot. We have lot of geckoes in the house. They are ok; they just leave lot of mess behind. Spiders and other crawling greazers don’t make me jump anymore. Even the cockroach can be removed by a foot sweep.

My patience has increased a lot. I have learned to realise that complaining doesn’t take you anywhere. Of course I sill complain but hopefully less. Waiting for your food for an hour is normal in the restaurant, and if you didn’t get what you ordered you can ask them to change it, but it might not be possible or it will take twice the time.

Being treated wrongly or seeing some unfairness around is everyday thing. What I have learned, which I am not proud of, is that you can’t do anything about it. If teachers use a stick, or parents hit their kids, or men harass women, it is just better to leave the scene and forget it. You can’t do anything about it so better to leave.

There is a lot more that I have learned during my visit. I am glad that I came. Will I ever come back to Africa? For sure I will. When, that is the only question!

14.11.2008 It didn’t take long for me to decide that I am not the one to give out the sports gear which was brought from Finland. It caused more problems that I could have guessed. I decided to distribute everything through someone else.

There seems to be built in gene in Tanzanians that Mzungu (white man) has it all and he is supposed to give it for them. The only sentence everyone knows in this country is a very good reflection of it. “Mzungu, give me my money!” It is not a request. It has already the status of a greeting.

So I gave a box of shoes to my friend who helps me to coach the girls’ team. He took the best ones to himself of course but that was expected. Then one day he distributed shoes to all who attended the practise. We have kept the attendance so we wanted to give shoes to those who have been practising. I think we succeeded quite well. The next day we had ten new players at practise.

Another issue which we faced was more cultural. When we had distributed the shoes to the players, we expected them to wear them in practise from now on. But the next day we had some of the players running barefoot again. They said their sister or brother had taken the shoes from them since they had no shoes either. Back home this would never happen. Here it is quite normal. So what to do now? Are we supposed to give a new pair for them, or let them run barefoot? We have decided to let them run barefoot hoping that they get the shoes back. Otherwise it would be an endless road, giving shoes out and same people coming to ask for more.

Giving something to someone makes you feel good. I don’t know if it just me but you kind of hope that when giving something to someone, the person would appreciate it. Here it leads to more and more problems. One good example is what happened with my friend. He was kind enough to give his old cellular phone to his friend. At first the friend was very appreciative. After a while he came to him and asked for another battery. The battery that he had was not running long enough. Since he had given the phone to him, it was his responsibility to buy him a new battery. We were wondering if it was his responsibility to buy phone credit for him also.

I am trying to avoid giving out anything directly. I don’t want to increase the reputation that Mzungu will give you everything. I am using my friend instead. He likes being the Santa Clause. It is funny how he likes to have a new status in the village. He goes around telling that he has found a sponsor. They seem to believe him.

So things didn’t really turn out the way I expected. I wanted to give out all these donated shoes and equipment to see people enjoy sports. It turned out to cause more problems and increase the reputation that I will get what I want if I just keep asking for it long enough. No efforts have been made to direction of being self-independent.

Anyway, I still have three boxes of shoes in my room. I will give the rest to our physical education students. At least they are then in good use. I will leave some for the college to be used in practical training.

All together I received more than 100 pairs of shoes, close to 50 balls and lots of other equipment. Thank you all for being generous. I don’t know how long they will last but for sure they will be in use until they burst.

Thank you!

13.11.2008 Competition is a great motivator. Unfortunately it is the only thing that gets people to move sometimes. Well, that is not true. Money is the other thing.

We arranged a college tournament for our zone. We invited five other colleges but only two came. We competed in boys’ football and basketball, girls’ netball, and volleyball in both.

The schedule was very flexible as things are here in Africa. I don’t think any of the games started as scheduled. The games were played during the morning and evening hours to avoid the hot sun. Later at night we had entertainment which the art department had prepared for us. That was probably the best part of the tournament. I enjoyed the traditional dances and plays they had prepared.

Tournament was opened by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mama Kabaka. After a lot of speeches and crowd pleasers the tournament was on its way.

First day of the tournament showed already signs that winning is the most important thing in the competition. Out of the three colleges one was not as competent as the other two. From the beginning it was obvious that the battle was only between Tarime and Butimba.

Tarime had brought drums and was really prepared to cheer for each other. It took a day for Butimba to get its troops in line. The second day everyone was ready and the atmosphere was amazing.

Tournament like this will not get through without some high emotions. Competing to be a tournament winner raised some questionable ways to compete. Organising team used some secondary school students who turned out to be the best players. Well, to their defence, these kids were younger than the others.

Volleyball was probably the sport with the best atmosphere. Spectators didn’t seem to get along and the official received more than his share of feedback. Winners were still found and I think everyone was alive at the end.

I officiated the basketball games. Boys’ game was the opening game so there was quite a lot of tension in the air. I think it all went well anyhow. Women on the other hand had totally different problems. Tarime was the only team in the competition so we had organised a secondary school team to play against them so that they didn’t have to leave without playing a single game. That wasn’t why they had come here for. Their only goal was to bring the trophy home. Well, I tried to explain that they were already the winners of the tournament but let us play this friendly match in order to have at least one game played in the tournament. Tarime demanded that we would announce them as winners before they would play any friendly game against anyone. Well, I agreed and announced that Tarime is the winner of the college tournament. The crowd started celebrating and it took ten minutes to clear the court from outsiders. That wasn’t enough though. Now that Tarime was announced as a winner, they decided that there was no need to play any game. And I thought winning wasn’t the most important thing.

Well, rest of the tournament went ok. Each game had its peeks but in the end everyone seemed to enjoy. Tarime left home with volleyball and football trophies while Butimba kept the netball and boys basketball trophy. Bunda received some free equipment to prepare themselves for next year.

It was a great happening. To have even better tournament next year we have to learn from mistakes though. First of all rules should be known to all participants. Making up rules on the way is not very professional.

Another thing is to make sure that everyone agrees with the goal of the tournament. Along the tournament there were many signs of unsportsmanlike behaviour which was unfortunately agreed by tutors. We have to make sure that being enemies on the court does not equal to being enemies outside the court.

How to loose the competitiveness is another challenge. When the game is on, everyone is after the win, of course. But if you know beforehand that the other team is better, you should not give up and refuse to play the game. If that was the meaning of sports, we could play all games in the cabinet.

The final conclusion is that no matter where you are, the competition is always there. Well, that is probably why I like sports also. I just wish that people could see the bigger picture sometimes.

Everyone around the world knows that Obama was elected. One thing that is hard to realize is that Africa celebrated his victory like it was their own. Some ways it is. Kenya has announced the Election Day a public holiday but also here in Tanzania everyone is celebrating.

I watched the morning news which was a live coverage from the announcements of the results. There were ten other people watching the news. When the results came people got crazy.

Through out the day people were congratulating each other and hand shaking who ever they met. I even found myself congratulating most of them.

Two weeks ago we had also elections in Finland. They weren’t followed quite so internationally like the US elections. I wonder why. Anyway, I did my civic duty and went to the Embassy to vote.

It was the first time for me to do it outside Finland. I have voted as absent before so the procedure was familiar. I still find it quite weird that I am supposed to have anonymity in voting and still they put my name on the envelope. Well, who cares? It is not a secret who I voted for. Most embarrassing is to admit that I had no idea who to vote before walking in the Embassy. There I found a book of all candidates and after going through it I found a person I had voted before. So I still thing everyone should not be able to vote. I am one of them. There should be some requirements for voters. And I would be first not to pass.

5.11.2008 I had had stomach ache for ten days so I decided to go to see a doctor. I decided to go to the same doctor I had used before. I was tested malaria and typhoid and the result for malaria was positive. This time I had two parasites. 

I got the medicine and left home to rest. Two days later my condition hadn’t changed. My stomach was still aching and I had an enormous headache. They were both symptoms of malaria. So after finishing my first dose of medicine I went back to see the doctor.

More tests, still malaria. The doctor suggested injections since the first medicine hadn’t helped. I agreed since I didn’t know any better. I got first two injections at the hospital. I was supposed to get one every following day for four days. I decided to take the other injections with me since the hospital was so far.

Now I have been suffering of malaria for a week and things seem to get better. I am not fully recovered yet but at least some signs of improvement are there. Since my stomach is not any better, I have a feeling that there are some unwanted guests there again. I better go back and test it again. The doctor was very reluctant to diagnose amoeba even though all the symptoms were there. Maybe the third visit will ensure him for the other problem.

The visits to local hospital are always quite entreating. Many would think that the cleanness would be something to worry about. Well, it doesn’t reach all the western standards but it is clean in some sense. The bigger difference is the lack of privacy. The doctor’s office – or corner covered with a curtain - is some kind of meeting place. While I was telling about my symptoms at least ten people came in and interrupted us in three minutes time. Not to mention those who decided to wait inside for their turn. I think sharing the pain with all other patience is common here.

I have received now four injections. So far I have had two in the hospital waiting room while everyone was watching. One was received in the neighboring house around all family members and yesterday I went to a school nurse to be stared by students waiting for their turn. Well, at home I would say if they haven’t seen a butt before, now it is about time. But here I can’t say it since I think none of them have ever seen a white butt quite like mine. So at least I am offering some entertainment for everyone.

So lack of privacy is one thing. There are other things which could make you worry. Like the school nurse’s visual impairment. She says that she used to see but she doesn’t see anymore. What can I say? Sorry for that. Just try to find my butt when sticking the needle in. Fortunately my butt is quite big, so she can’t really miss it.

25.10.2008 It was great to have her over. It has been more than 9 months when we saw each other last. She is also the world’s biggest worrier so it is good to show her that her daughter is doing fine in Africa.

I went to Dar to pick her up. It was already dark when the plane landed so the taxi drive home was done in total darkness. That was probably the best for first timer in Africa. She couldn’t see everything right away.

We stayed in Onnela, the Finnish compound, which also helped her to have a soft landing for her three week visit.

First four days we took time to get to know the city of Dar es Salaam. Onnela is located in Masaki where all white and rich live. It is totally opposite of the real situation in the country. Again it was the best start for someone like my mom.

After a while mom had gotten used to the heat and humidity. Well, she was complaining all the time but I think she enjoyed it though. We took a bus to Arusha to the zoo of safari goers.

The bus ride took ten hours. We got stuck with a local bicycle race. There was no place to over take them so we had the “front seat” to follow them. Their bicycles aren’t the latest style, the roads are in poor condition and only few were helmets. We saw many accidents but surprisingly none of them were as bad as they looked. Anyway, I don’t think that race would pass any international regulations for any kind of race. Driving between cars, on the road which is full of pot holes with tiny tires will only mean trouble. Not to mention the so called staff cars. Old pick up trucks which are over crowded with people and spare tires or other bicycle equipment. Well, after one hour we were safely in front of them.

I had booked us a car to pick us up from Arusha. I had planned a three day visit to Ngorongoro and Serengeti National Park for us. It turned out to be great.

We were lucky with the animals, we even saw three rhinos. The elephant and the giraffe stay still in number one position and I was really happy when we run into both herds which we followed for over an hour.

We stayed in nice lodges which was again a good decision. I don’t think my mom would have been ready for camping safari. And I have to admit that I also preferred some luxury after being here for so long.

Three days flew but each night we felt like we had done a long day of manual labour, and all we had done was sit or stand in the car and look for the animals. Doing that in a direct sunlight makes you tired but I think the anticipation and excitement was the real cause for our tiredness.

We finished the safari to Mwanza which was quite convenient. My mom and her friend were welcomed to live in our house with us. Our house has two bedrooms and since the boys were out we had the house for ourselves.

Mom got to see where I lived and worked and hopefully realised that it isn’t such a bad place after all. Seeing me happy there was probably the only thing she was after.

One day I took them to see a traditional dance show with 15 of my friends. The show was spectacular but I think what made it special again was to share with my local friends. Seeing them enjoy something they couldn’t experience without us, and like it, made us feel good. Of course it didn’t hurt that we enjoyed the show also.

Last part of her visit we decided to spend in Zanzibar. We took a ferry over and spent three days at the beach on the Eastern coast and one day on the Western coast in Stone town. We relaxed, sailed in the Indian Ocean and enjoyed the village life of a Muslim Island of Zanzibar.

Three weeks flew by fast. That is also the reason why I haven’t had even time to write my blog. Anyway, it was great to have mom over. She seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. I love you mom – Karibu tena!