Leaving Zanzibar and Being Sick at Nairobi Airport

Sunday, September 11, 2005

We were scheduled to leave our place on Nungwi Beach for the drive to Zanzibar Airport mid-morning.

That still left time for one last walk down the beach and the local lanes lined with bougainvillea bushes and grass-roofed buildings for some last minute souvenir-shopping. After all, we couldn't take Tanzanian money out of the country officially, so we might as well spend what we had left over.

Some bargaining at the little shop where I'd spotted the big blue tinga tinga painting with panels of animals the day before used up most of the rest of our money (about thirty dollars). I was really pleased with this purchase---and it rolled up nice and tight once the merchant removed it from its plywood frame.

Before we left our villa, we also retrieved our passports from the hotel safe. I'd had some reservations (okay, some paranoid thoughts) about the safety of leaving our valuables there because we'd heard that some nearby hotels had been held-up by robbers but it turned out fine.

As for my arm, it was not fine. As I said in a previous post, the black henna on my arm was quite distinctly causing a reaction. Its outline was red and raised and puffy. I told some other concerned members of our group that I just had sensitive skin and that I sometimes had skin reactions that could be taken care of with the allergy medication Benadryl. Unfortunately, the Benadryl was far out of its league. But at the time, I was still hopeful that the swelling would go down soon.

The airport was about an hours drive away. Oh my goodness, it was such a hot day! Probably the most heat we've felt since we arrived in Africa. We sweltered in the airport lounge while we waited for our 3:15pm flight to Nairobi.

Jeff's mom also had to talk Jen out of buying an elephant figurine in the airport giftshop, similar to one that Jen had seen before on the island and admired. Heather had to confess that, er, she was already getting one of those for Christmas. :)

As we took off from Zanzibar and climbed high above the island, I could see the beautiful blue and green jewel tones of the waters of the Indian Ocean from the air. Gorgeous!

But the very last picture I took in Africa (I took over a thousand) was the one on this page of the men clinging to the outside of the local matutu truck.

Our flight from Nairobi to London was delayed for a long time. It was supposed to leave shortly after eleven pm , but the plane did not take off for London until about one in the morning. It was an excrutiating wait for me. By this time, the black henna reaction was making me miserable and nauseous. I couldn't eat the food from the airport-coupons provided to us. My head ached. My arm was beginning to weep from the frighteningly high blisters that had sprouted all down my arm and hand.

The nurses in the medical unit of the Nairobi Airport were kind, and they tried to be helpful, but they had very limited medical supplies in their first-aid kit. All they could do was wrap my arm (in what seemed to be the last gauze bandages they had) and advise me to seek out a doctor immediately upon arrival in England.

We made a cash donation to the nurses towards replenishing the first-aid kit. Note to self: don't get sick or injured in Africa if you can help it. My experience visiting the Meserani Snake Park's little medical clinic had made me aware of that quite recently, but I hadn't planned on using the medical system at all here. In fact, almost all of us travellers had given away all our bandages, antibiotics, etc. to the Meserani clinic. I was lucky to be able to get one antibiotic tablet from Jo while we waited in the departure lounge. I suspected I might need it.

Last Night in Africa

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Tomorrow we'll all be on planes heading for the British Isles. It's home for most of the people who have travelled with us on this trip to Kenya and Tanzania, and it will be my family's next stop on our vacation .

Travelling in Africa has been the most memorable trip I've ever taken, most likely one of the most life-enriching things I've ever done. If you ever get a chance, just go.

I'd definitely travel with Exodus Tours again as well. Excellent guides, great places, and we had the great luck of signing on to the same expedition as a great group of travelling companions.

We celebrated our last night of the trip by having an enormous barbeque on the beach, sitting at long tables on the soft sand and drinking and eating and talking until quite late.

The Henna Incident

Saturday, September 10, 2005

WARNING: DO NOT EVER USE BLACK HENNA!

It is not the real plant-based henna which when painted on leaves a brown or reddish colour on your skin.

The black henna looks pretty but it is likely to contain POISONOUS dyes and chemicals and can cause SEVERE ALLERGIC REACTIONS in as many as one in ten ( not always on the first application which may only sensitize you to it, so if you have ever got one of these black henna patterns done without incident, please don't get it done again.)

Remember when I said the two dollars admission fee to the Mnarani Natural Aquarium was the best two dollars I ever spent? Well, this was the WORST three dollars I ever spent.

I got this done in front of my beach hotel in Nungwi, Zanzibar by a very nice local woman. She painted a very beautiful design. Unfortunately, this whole experience was a nightmare afterwards.

The design felt okay at first, but I had second thoughts about having done this almost right away, and tried to peel the henna paste off only ten minutes later (they recommend you leave it on for an hour). I ran up to the bathroom in our room and tried to wash it off, but as was common in our hotel the water was not currently working.

Fortunately they got the pump going withing the hour and I took off what I could. It still felt okay, but that inner little voice of mine was already telling me that this had been a bad, bad, idea. I tried to hush it. After all, I've had henna applied many, many times in my life and never had a problem: at bellydance parties in Canada, in the city of Marrakech in Morrocco. But that was real henna, not the black henna.

It was during the night (when my arm began to itch and burn) that I began to realize I was having an allergic reaction and by the time I was on the flight from Nairobi to England I was nauseous and the blisters were at least an inch high. I wouldn't have thought it possible for your skin to contain so much fluid...



Flashforward: This Black Henna resulted in visiting two hospitals over the next several days after I arrived back in London, England. I received a severe second-degree chemical burn which resulted in huge painful blisters and blackened tissue. My arm weeped pus for several weeks and had to be swaddled in a rubberized second-skin and bandages. I took antibiotics for the blood poisoning that occurred.

A year and a half later I consider myself very fortunate to not have a disfiguring scar. But I still have faint outlines on my arm where the black henna was painted on even now.

Yeah, don't do what I did on vacation, folks.

Snorkelling Trip

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Jeff and his sister Jen (as well as a number of the group we travelled on safari with) decided to join a guided snorkelling trip offered by a local company.

They rented masks and flippers and headed out this afternoon on a dhow equipped with an outboard motor, although they used the sail most of the time.

They sailed out to a likely spot and then swam in clear shallow water (maybe ten or twenty feet deep) among brightly coloured tropical fish and coral. The guides offered the snorkellers some sort of bread to offer the fishes and some came and ate out of their hands, although Jeff said the fish disdained to come and eat his bread.

There was quite a strong current, however, so that although it was gentle enough that you could swim against it, one did have to swim constantly or the current would move you too far from the boat (or into the boat...Jeff mentioned he bumped into the boat a few times.)

Alas, it seemed that nobody brought an underwater camera so the only picture of the trip we have is that of the boat coming in at the end of the day.

The boat came right back to the beach in front of our hotel, but the heavy surf made the boat bounce up and down so much it was hard for people to climb out. Jeff was one of the lucky guys who got to climb into the water to try and hold the boat steady so the others could disembark. He was soaked.

An Afternoon By the Beach (While Jeff was Snorkelling)

Saturday, September 10, 2005

While Jeff was out snorkelling, his mother and I decided to stay landbound and explore the village a little more and perhaps do a bit of souvenir shopping. It was our last full day in Africa, so it was now or never if we wanted to do that.

Jeff's mom had a whole list of people to shop for, and she enlisted my help to bargain for better prices with the merchants. She hated haggling. I enjoyed it.

We haggled for her tinga tinga paintings, wooden elephant figurines, and carved salad tongs. All her Christmas shopping was going to be finished here and now.

Myself, I had my eye on a large tinga tinga painting that hung above the doorway of one of the open-air shops on the beach. It was painted in many small panels with whimsical animals in each and I really admired it, but the price was frightful--perhaps not for North American standards but it was certainly one of the most expensive paintings I'd seen. I decided I'd bring Jeff to see it later.

Meanwhile I contented myself with a small impressionistic zebra painting.

As well as shopping, we spent some time drinking good, strong African coffee in the little cafes. One of the cafes was run by a friendly British girl and I tried to imagine what it would be like running a small restaurant at the edge of the Indian Ocean. It was a nice little place.

We watched local women gathering the edible seaweed that blankets some sections of the beaches here. They carried it away on their heads in baskets and pails to eventually be sold (apparently) to the Japanese market.

We watched a man mending the thatch on the roof of a house, and met a couple of young boys and their monkey Ali. We passed by women sitting on the beach selling massage, braiding hair in corn-row braids, and painting henna patterns on visitors. I wish we hadn't seen those last ladies. I really do. "It would be fun for you to get that done", said Jeff's mom, "since you didn't get it done in Stonetown."

Sigh, I wish (I REALLY wish) I hadn't gotten it done here either.

It was a beautiful day, but I made a bad mistake (thankfully right at the end of my time in Africa). This brings me to the Henna Incident...... well, first let me tell you about Jeff's snorkelling trip.

Lunch with a View

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Ah, another morning and lunch in a paradise of sea and sky colours.

Life in Zanzibar feels slow and sunny and lazy.

Sunset Beach Walk with a Rising Tide

Friday, September 9, 2005

Tonight, accompanied by a beautiful sunset, the four of us walked up the beach to dine at a restaurant that had a broad deck built on stilts over the ocean.

Very delicious. Very relaxing. There were margaritas involved.

Walking here, we had realized that the tide was already merrily climbing the beach and so we had brought flashlights so we could make our way back to the villa by the dirt road that ran in front of the restaurant area.

After dinner, as night fell, we ended up being glad we could lend a flashlight to friends of ours who suddenly realized they would be stumbling down the alleyway in the dark otherwise.

On our way back we stopped in a tiny internet cafe where Jen was able to finalize plans to travel back home day after tomorrow. Jeff and his mom and I were travelling on to spend a week in London, but poor Jen had to head back to work early. It always amazes me that no matter where you are in the world, it's almost always possible to access the internet. It amazed me in a a small desert town in Morocco that had maybe three buildings, and it amazes me again on this little island off East Africa.

Baby Sea Turtles!

Friday, September 9, 2005

Here are some more pictures of our time at the Mnarani Natural Aquarium on Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar.

I think that for all of us holding the baby turtles was a highlight of the experience. Their little bodies were cool and leathery and they had the most serious expressions on their little freckled faces.

There were several sizes of young turtles wimming in separate basins or tanks, ranging in size from a shell maybe only two inches across to the plump youngsters we were holding.

The aquarium also kept a few small land tortoises, as well as a python from the local forest which was kept in a pen with a very large and resigned-looking cane rat.

Mnarani Sea Turtle Lagoon

Friday, September 9, 2005
The following information comes from a travel guide to Zanzibar, and illustrates where we spent a pleasant part of this afternoon, about twenty minutes walk down the soft white beach from where we were staying.

It also represents the best use of two dollars that I have ever spent. Thinking back on my vacation I wish I had donated more money than the entrance fee required to this project. Feeding seaweed to these amazing animals has got to be one of the experiences in my life I'll always remember:

Hawksbill turtles have traditionally been hunted around Zanzibar for their attractive shells, and green turtles for their meat. In 1993, with encouragement and assistance from various conservation bodies and some dedicated marine biologists, the local community opened the Mnarani Natural Aquarium (open 09.00-18.00 daily). In the shadow of the lighthouse ('Mnarani' meaning 'place of the lighthouse' in Swahili), at the northernmost tip of
Zanzibar Island, the aquarium was created around a large, natural tidal pool in the coral rock behind the beach. Originally set up to rehabilitate and study turtles that had been caught in fishing nets, the aquarium project expanded to ensure that local baby turtles were also protected. turtles frequently nest on Nungwi Beach, and village volunteers now mark and monitor new nests. The resulting hatchlings are carried to small plastic basins and small concrete tanks at the aquarium where they remain for ten months. By this time, they have grown to ten inches and their chances of survival at sea are dramatically increased. All bar one of these turtles are then released into the sea, along with the largest turtle from the aquarium pool. The one remaining baby turtle is then added to the pool ensuring a static population of 17 turtles. In September 2005 (when we were there), this equated to four hawksbills (Swahili: ng'amba), identified by the jagged edge on their shell, sharper beak and sardine diet, and 13 seaweed-loving green turtles (Swahili: kasakasa). The aquarium manager, Mr. Mataka Kasa, keeps a log book detailing all eggs, hatchlings and releases. On June 5, 2005, the sanctuary released its first tagged turtle, as part of a worldwide monitoring programme. In spite of the aquarium being little more than a glorified rock pool, it's fascinating to see the turtles at close quarters. further, the money raised secures the project's future, and goes towards local community schemes--in a bid to demonstrate the tangible value of turtle conservation to the local population. With luck, this will lessen the trade in souvenir shell products and ensure the species' survivial. On a practical note, the water is clearest about two hours before high tide (Swahili: maji kujaa).








Along with the turtles, the other photographs show the schools of mullet fish swimming in the rock pool. They skimmed the water's surface in tight formation making little synchronized kissy-faces with their bright white mouthes as they swam along.

Nungwi Beach

Friday, September 9, 2005

Here are more pictures of the Nungwi Beach, Zanzibar.

The area is known for its hand-crafted fishing boats which are a common sight here out on the water or moored in small groups close to the shore.

As you can see, there were very few tourists down at this end of the beach (close to the lighthouse and the Mnarani aquarium). The sun-bathers and tourists (Zanzibar seems to be a popular destination for Italian-speaking travellers) mostly stayed about a half hours walk in the other direction down the shore, in an area populated with thatched-roof restaurants and bars.

But here was only sand, seaweed, wave-sculpted coral rock and people hauling fish in to shore.