Voyage of the Peace Corps: Island of the Megabats

From Unguja, the largest island of Zanzibar, I took a ferry to the next largest island, Pemba.  Unlike Unguja, we have volunteers on Pemba, so that while my accommodations may not be air-conditioned, they are considerably more free than on Unguja.   Getting there was a little involved.  My destination was Wete, up on the north of the island, and the ferry comes in to Mkoani, at the very south of the island.  Normally this would not be an issue.  The island is small enough that going from south to north is about 1.5 hours by dala dala.  However, on Zanzibar, dalas are not the 15 passenger vans I am used to crammed full of 30 people and a chicken.  They are pickup trucks with benches along the side of the bed and an awning over the bed, crammed full of 30 people and a chicken.  Something about the different orientation of the seating, plus being a little dehydrated and hot, made me really motion sick, and I had to turn and throw up off the side a few times.  Throwing up out of the window or side of a moving vehicle should a Peace Corps merit badge.

I finally got to Wete and was collected by the volunteer, who is lucky enough to have a cold shower with good water pressure.  He also introduced me to the wonders of Zanzibari street food.  The fried squid and octopus I knew about.  The sugarcane juice I have been in love with for some time.  I did NOT know about arojo (sp?) this wonderful spicy broth/stew/soup stuff.  People have street stands and you tell them what you want in it (default is everything) and add lots of spices.   Travel guide books will tell you that Zanzibaris are better cooks than their mainland neighbors, and they are absolutely right.  One of the great disappointments of my service was that the food culture of Tanzania I did not find exciting (and in fact, generally comment that Tanzanian cooks are wonderful people who need to be introduced to a spice rack).  Zanzibar, however, lives up to my shallow and glutinous hopes.  Would only had my stomach been feeling a little better during Pemba!  Whatever, there is a movie theater in Wete!  In a town not large enough for a bank, there is a real actual movie theater!  With a balcony! A large, decent screen, a dark theater with chairs, a decent sound system, and different movies every night!  Mostly kung fu and Bollywood.  I am not complaining.  Also, instead of popcorn, right outside you can buy watermelon and fried octopus.  On the night I attended, there was some Wesley Snipes action film featuring Wesley Snipes beating up and shooting various black-clad people.  The action was so important there wasn't even time for a gratuitous sex scene, much less an actual plot.  The audience was into it and cheered when bad guys were shot, gasped when good guys were shot, and I really don't think I've ever had a better theatrical cinematic experience.

Other things to do on Pemba include looking at the Pemba Flying Foxes, a species of giant fruit bat.  You can go down to the pier, watch the sunset over the water, then turn around to see the trees where all the bats nest and watch the bats wake up and fly.

Tree full of bats.

Bird on top of tree full of bats.

I like sunsets.

My camera doesn't do well with darkness or with quick moving objects, picture wise, so here's a low quality video of the bats flying after the sun goes down.

From there, a cute little plane across the water to Tanga!  To date, the only form of transportation I have ever been on in Tanzania that has not included chickens.  Which is just weird.  Also, airport "security" took away my bottled water and left my bottle of rum.

Next: the milkshakes of Moshi.