Visit to Zanzibar
Report of Douglas and Pat Cameron - October 2009
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On 1st October 2009 KLM flew us to Amsterdam, - Kenya Airways to Nairobi, - and Precision Air to Zanzibar. The journey was smooth and uncomplicated. Zanzibar customs nodded us through. Siedi, our travel agent and friend was awaiting us with a big smile. Even though Ramadan was over he was, as usual, fasting for a further six days to gain extra blessings. Being a Friday both he and the driver Mohammed were wearing a kanzu. They left us at the Tembo Hotel where we refreshed ourselves before setting out to walk about. This is our 8th visit since 2000, and the Tembo staff remains largely unchanged.
Walking around the town area we saw some of the old stone houses under repair. Scaffolding of mangrove poles was much in evidence. The mangroves are imported from the mainland. There is some replanting being done in Zanzibar to prevent erosion. It was good to see some restoration of the houses underway though for some buildings it is too late. On the front the Forodhani Gardens have undergone a complete makeover. Stone benches (barazas), are numerous as walking or sitting on the grass is forbidden. A special area is designated for outdoor cooking for which a licence is now essential. The cooks have had a compulsory three month training. It was interesting to watch the preparations made by the cooks as they carted in tables, sacks of charcoal, and boxes of food to cook. They were well organised and in no time smoke was rising and the odours of cooking invaded the nostrils. In the past sellers of crafts took up their stances near the cook-outs but are now no longer allowed to do so. Now one can wander about without hassle. Two policemen patrol the area each carrying a large heavy stick in case of trouble. Litter containers abound so the area is rubbish free. At one end is a marvellous children’s playground equipped with everything a child would want. No more than 50 children can play at a time and a fee of 300TSH is required collected by the male supervisors. The play area is only open in the late afternoon for a few hours. The Aga Khan funded the entire scheme and will pay for a year’s litter clearance. After that who knows? The Gardens are an immensely popular area for the locals who flock there every evening to gossip, to meet friends and to eat. We did not have the courage to eat there.
The number of cars has doubled. Walking is a dangerous occupation, for as well as the cars, are the scooters and motor bikes all competing on the narrow roads. Motorcyclists are now legally bound to wear a helmet but few obey the rule. Women, children and wares are often to be seen on one bike perching precariously as the man weaves his way through people and traffic. Petrol is very expensive so vehicles tend to be used in the radius of the town area.
Apart from breakfast we did not eat at the Tembo Hotel where food is expensive and not particularly good. Evening meals we ate at the nearby Archipelago overlooking the sea where good fish is to be had. One evening we went to the harbour end to Freddie Mercury’s where we had an excellent pizza as we watched boys swimming and playing football on the beach as the sun sank into the sea without a splash. Before we had finished eating a Taraab band with two women dancers started up in the restaurant. They were amazing to watch. Much to Douglas’ embarrassment I joined the two women who tried to show me, unsuccessfully, how to wiggle my bottom as they did. It was fun and they gave me big hugs when we left.
Lunch we ate at the former English Club now The Africa Hotel. A young monkey ran about the balcony causing both amusement and horror among the lunchers. On our way out we met the new owners, an Arab with an English wife. While the food is good the hotel needs a revamp. When making a comfort call we found candles placed in the cubicles as the light bulbs had gone, also there was no water. Before eating a waiter brought a bowl and jug of water which he poured over our hands.
Saturday morning after a leisurely breakfast by the beach watching the locals perform their vigorous keep-fit exercises we strolled along to the cathedral to pay a visit to Bishop John Ramadhani. On his visit to Argyll and The Isles he preached at St Columba’s Gruline and stayed with Daffy and Ken Madge. It was good to see him looking well. He asked us to reassure Mull he is still alive! He continues to be an advisor and father-figure to many. He filled us in with the church news. The election of the new bishop is to take place next October with the consecration a fortnight later. It is assumed that one of the priests studying at St Mark’s will be a candidate. Three priests were sent there to upgrade their education. However, another possibility is the present Vicar-General who is regarded as a no nonsense man who expects clergy to work hard. Canon Matthew would prefer to be a parish priest.
Douglas was able to arrange the next day’s transport with Matthew to Mahonda. We also saw Jean Howe, a one-time secretary to +John and now helping out in various ways; she had very recently fallen and fractured her wrist which was in plaster. Quite a story she had to tell. The Government Hospital had no x-rays so she was taken to a privately-run hospital for the x-ray. This hospital had no plaster of Paris so back to the Govt Hosp with the x-ray. After hours of waiting the plaster was put on but with another patient holding her hand to keep the arm in position. The patient’s hand was sweaty and kept slipping so what the outcome will be is something of a worry. Jean can move her fingers freely.
As the transport was coming for us at 8am we were up bright and early. The service at St Barnabas was timed to begin at 9am but in fact it was after 9.30 before everyone was gathered and ready. The new priest, Fr Weston, is married to Frances who is the chief teacher in the Nursery School. They have one child, Jehoshaphat aged 2. Weston is keen and brimming with ideas but lacks confidence. The choir performed in its usual lively manner with its own version of liturgical dancing. Douglas preached with the aid of an interpreter. He was lucky to be sitting by a fan. With the iron roof the church was a furnace. Children wandered in and out. At the end of the service I was led up to the front to stand beside Douglas. Gifts were brought up by dancing presenters – a hand of bananas, a tingting painting, the local game of Bau and two kangas. We were very touched.
Douglas was then asked to bless the prepared foundations for the new office and to lay the foundation stone. A pile of large coral was waiting to be broken up into small pieces known as coral rag to be mixed with cement for the walls. At present the church vestry is used as the office to house the computer and photocopier. Canon Matthew arrived from Matui where he had been celebrating to join us for lunch in Weston’s house. On the table were placed dishes of rice, a sort of banana stew and an octopus stew, with fresh orange juice for drink. Oranges are plentiful at this time as are mangos. A time was arranged for us to see the school next day on our way to the Shooting Star.
We did a little retail shopping. There was evident despair and worry as the shop keepers say the tourists are not spending much money and they are suffering because of the credit crunch. It is our custom to always go to the Zanzibar Curio shop run by two Indian brothers, Murturza and Asif. Asif, the elder brother and business manager surprised me by throwing his arms round me. I think he was just relieved to see us and to know that we would spend some money. He was very down about his financial state having lost a lot of money on the stock market and little tourist money coming in. Both brothers filled us in with their family news. We asked about their blind father who usually sits in the shop listening to what is going on. He is such a nice man. He just wasn’t down that day.
Murturza had a scrap of paper for Douglas on which was the address and a message from a fellow student of University of The South, Sewanee, USA days (1961). He is a bishop in Malawi and had been into the Curio shop and Murturza as always asked him what he did, and where he was from. When told he was a bishop, Murturza said he had a bishop friend from Scotland, to which came the reply that that would be Dougie Cameron. Murturza said I know him as Douglas!
Because Siedi had a bereavement over the weekend Alawi and Ali came to take us to the Shooting Star calling at Mahonda on the way. A crowd was waiting outside the office to have their birth certificates photocopied to be able to register for a ballot paper for next October’s government election. Because of this ruling the photocopier was busy making money for the church. The rice machine was also in action making money for the school. The donations given by Mull and others in Scotland to start these projects have been well used.
The school playground has been cleared and now has swings and slides which the children love. The orange tree planted by Douglas will once full grown provide some shade. Fr Weston wants to fence the area to stop the adults from using the equipment and breaking it. The children were happy and excited to see us. They sang songs of welcome. We took pencils, exercise books, skipping ropes, jacks and marbles. In her quiet way Frances has full control of the children and they obviously love her. The majority are Muslim. Father Weston would like to arrange scholarships for children whose parents (Muslim and Christian) cannot afford school fees. He and his wife already take in weekly boarders at no cost to the parents.
Parents do help to keep the grounds clear and are invited to become involved in the running of the school. No religious education can be given and yet in the government schools it is compulsory for the children to learn to both write and speak Arabic and to be taught Islam. Christian children have their teaching on a Sunday. We took some books to help. Books are difficult to obtain unless one travels to Dar es Salaam to the Christian bookshop there.
Reluctantly we left the happy children to move on to Kiwengwa, where the Christians under the guidance of Fr Stephen Kamwendo have built a church. A house is needed for the evangelist. The foundations are dug and a beginning made on the walls but at a standstill as little money coming in. This was something to discuss with Canon Matthew, the Vicar General.
Then on to Shooting Star and five days of doing nothing but swim, walk and read. A resident monkey which resides in the nearby bush paid us several visits. The attraction was the pawpaw tree with its ripe fruit. Some very colourful birds also visited the bougainvillea bushes and they gave us a lot of pleasure to watch. Swifts with red underparts swooped along the pool supping water as they swept by. A few changes of staff but we were pleased to have Rachma to look after us again. She brought our breakfast each morning and cleaned our ‘castle’. Young Hussein the gardener came each day to chat. His English was nil so we had fun with our phrase book as we communicated with him amid much laughter. I asked him to please plant more frangipani trees! A former member of staff turned up to see us. He said he had been told that Babu and Bibi (grandfather and grandmother) were back so he came to see us. Christan is Catholic and had many questions to ask about the church. He also wanted ideas on how to advertise the bags and clothes he makes to sell for a living. We had long conversations with Eli who owns the Shooting Star with his English wife Lesley.
They have a gorgeous 3yr old Jacob, baptised last year by Douglas. Eli says we are family and so heavily discounts our bill, very good of him. The Shooting Star does well and keeps full for most of the year. A conglomerate wants to buy Eli out but he refuses to budge.
Siedi collected us on Saturday morning and drove us to Mbweni Ruins Hotel where we were given a room superbly placed close to the beach. Having settled in we walked down the pot-holed road to call on Fr Matthew Heega and his wife Susan. They offered us refreshments of cocoa cola and hard sweet biscuits. Douglas discussed the service for next day with Matthew while I heard from Susan about the M.U.’s fund-raising schemes. They make bags and mats and other articles from raffia . She was plaiting lengths to be used for this purpose. They have a 15yr old son Angus who is doing quite well at his government school except for Arabic and Islam. His parents want to put him in the R.C. High School but have not the money for the fees. Our church has no secondary school, yet. To be able to find the fees Matthew would like to raise chickens and sell the eggs. He has worked out a plan but needs help to start off the scheme. He told us that the shops, are rented to a meat distribution business. The rent goes towards the building of the conference centre, to us a church hall, of which the exterior walls are finished but needing a roof before the interior can be done.
The Sunday service started at 8 and ended some 2 hours later. Unlike St Barnabas, St John’s has fans to help disperse the heat. Birds use the interior of the building for nesting so the service competed with their twittering. It is difficult to keep the birds out because of the open windows. Fr Matthew Heega has been a priest for under a year and is a natural. He is an older man and the people trust and like him. The choir sang at every opportunity and at the Gradual six young men sang with each in turn coming forward to mime the meaning. A couple of years ago I had suggested that this group make a C.D. of their singing and sell it. To our surprise this idea took off and their latest C.D. was blessed by Douglas in memory of Samuel Sehoza from Zanzibar who was ordained deacon in Bishop’s House Iona in 1895. This connection was the reason for Argyll and The Isles’ companion relationship with the Diocese of Zanzibar.
As is customary at St John’s those with birthdays of the week came up for a blessing. Peter Sudi age 75 years, who remembers my father, pulled me up to be his birthday companion. Peter has a twin, Cecilia, who wore a beautiful kanga. The children each received a blessing from Douglas before leaving for their class.
After the service everyone lined up outside to shake hands with each other. Douglas handed Joyce Wakati of the M.U. a large parcel donated by Lesley Davidson of St Paul’s Kinlochleven containing embroidery silks, needles, cross-stitch material and many cross-stitch packets with marked out Celtic crosses and rampant lions. The women of the parish are very keen to sew and learn embroidery skills from one another. Gilbert, the Sunday school teacher, was given books for the children. The Councillors said how much they appreciated the gifts given to them and for the great financial help from St Columba’s Mull in the building of the conference centre and the shops. Douglas told the people he would pass their messages on and tell Mull how much their money had done for their projects. The money had been used wisely.
Lunch was eaten with the church councillors in Fr Matthew Heega’s house. Once again octopus was on the menu with rice, blackened king fish and fruit. Octopus and calamari are pretty much the staple diet of the people and appear on all hotel menus. Lunch was a lengthy affair as no one was in a hurry to leave. There was much chatter and laughter. In church Douglas had been presented with a copy of the CD and I mentally thought ‘thank goodness, no heavy stuff’ so imagine my dismay when a large box was presented to Douglas wrapped in newspaper. It was a small Zanzibar chest with a brass plaque ‘From St John’s’. It is lovely and I am delighted with it. Douglas carried it on the plane as hand luggage. Again we were very touched by the generosity and kindness of the people.
When breakfasting one morning at the Tembo I spotted an elderly man with a slight limp walking by to begin his daily exercises. This was John da Silva, the archivist to whom I had given some of the black and white photographs of the Sultan and my father for his records. Since seeing John last he had suffered mini strokes and was blind in one eye. We spoke to him and he asked us to go to his house to see him. We arranged a time for the following week. John is one of he few Goans who remained in Zanzibar after the revolution when records were destroyed particularly pertaining to the British. John is keen to obtain as much information visual and written of the British era. A Canadian has given him a scanner to make the work easier for him. John’s daughter is also interested in retrieving past information and will carry on the work when he can no longer do it. John is a well-known artist, self-taught, and even with one eye he continues to paint. He is a very interesting man, widely travelled and read. Many people go to talk to him and to be advised by him regarding the state of the government and the political situation.
Father Matthew Heega and Susan came on Tuesday morning for cold drinks and nuts and to talk about St John’s and their own dreams. Susan doesn’t speak much English so again our phrase book was handy. They are a lovely couple. Canon Matthew., the Vicar General, came for lunch. Douglas spoke to him about the money given for St Barnabas and St John’s and what it was to be used for. He was in agreement with everything but did suggest that some of the St Barnabas allocation should go to St Mark’s, Kiwengwa (started by Fr Stephen Kamwendo) for the evangelist’s house, so this will be done. After lunch Matthew drove us to Joyce Wakati’s house as her husband Leonard is unwell and had asked that Douglas go to give him a blessing. The family cannot afford proper drugs for his heart condition so they use Arab medicine. Their daughter died several years ago from malaria because no money for drugs. They are bringing up her son as his father abandoned him. Joyce provided cold drinks and nuts as we chatted before Douglas said prayers.
Leonard is only 62.
Next day we were allowed to remain in our room beyond the limit. I was able to enjoy my last swim in a high tide. Joyce came for lunch bringing young Leonard aged 10 with her. While we talked he had fun using my binoculars. He is a bright lad. Joyce’s health is none too good either so of course she worries about him.
The time came all too soon for us to leave for the airport. It had been a wonderful fortnight which had given us many blessings and strengthened friendships.
Pat Cameron – 30th October 2009
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