I am now a week in to my internship and my time in Zanzibar. After a five long, tiring flights, I arrived at Karume International Airport, named for the famed first president of Zanzibar’s Revolutionary Government. The last leg of my flight was a twenty-minute-long journey on a tiny and crowded puddle-jumper plane that offered an amazing view of the approach to the beautiful, tropical island that will be my home for the next 6 months. I was accompanied by my future supervisor and we were met by the company driver who took us from the airport on the outskirts of Zanzibar City to the heart of narrow, winding streets that make up Stone Town, the historic core of Zanzibar City. The car made it to the front of my new office, but then we had to get out and walk to my apartment as the streets became too narrow for anything more than motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. We arrive to the guest-house and I am shown my new room, a small bedroom with an attached bathroom and a nice balcony looking out over my narrow street to St. Joseph’s Catholic Cathedral a block away.

View of my street and St. Joseph’s Cathedral from my balcony

Stone Town is like no place that I have ever been. It is a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways with beautiful, but crumbling, old buildings, stores, mosques, and churches packed in on either side. The buildings block out all views of landmarks and only leave a narrow strip of sky to appear between their roofs. The streets are filled with children playing pickup games of soccer, niqab-clad women returning from the market with only their eyes showing, hordes of tourists taking pictures of everything, people shouting jambo (hello) and rafiki (friend) getting you to come into their stores, chickens and stray kittens.

After getting everything sorted in my room, I took a quick shower and headed down to Forodhani Gardens, a waterfront park that turns into a giant outdoor food court with tables overflowing with skewers of fish and meat, the famous octopus skewers, chapatis, sambusas, naan, falafel, rice cakes, cassava, breadfruit, corn on the cob, grilled bananas, and the famous “Zanzibar Pizzas”, chapatis that are stuffed with a variety of ingredients and then cooked in front of you.

Forodhani Gardens during the day (before the food stands are set up).

I got my fill of street food (so far I have eaten mostly street food and haven’t suffered any consequences yet) and headed back to my room to pass out. I was exhausted from my five flights and had to be ready to go to work the following morning at 8:30.

My first few days have been spent mostly in the office as my working hours are eight to five every day. I have also been trying to work on my Swahili and take care of other business in the evenings, but I have managed to get out and explore my fascinating new home each afternoon. Today I grabbed my map and set out to work my way through the maze of streets surrounding my apartment. It is extremely difficult and very easy to get lost, something that does concern me a bit. I have been attempting to map out known routes back to my place and stick to them, while trying to explore as much as possible. This afternoon, I had chosen my route and attempted to stick to it. I was going to head from my apartment through the narrow streets to the north end of Stone Town and then follow the waterfront back to Forodhani Gardens. After leaving my apartment I set out to Jaw’s Corner, a junction of 5 narrow walking streets where men sit and play cards and drink tea. I left the corner on the road heading north. After 30 minutes of wandering through narrow streets, thinking I was heading in the right direction, I come around a corner and realize that I am right back where I started, at Jaw’s Corner. All I could do was laugh. I somehow managed to walk in circles. The saving grace is that Stone Town really isn’t that big, so no matter how lost you get, you know that you will either end up somewhere you recognize, if not the very same place that you started your journey.

I am still in the stage where everything I encounter is wondrous and amazing. I want to say that Zanzibar is even more exotic than the images conjured by its name, but I hate using the term “exotic” as it implies a certain level of objectification of a very real place and very real people going through very real struggles. But still, Zanzibar is stranger and more exciting than any place I have ever visited, much less lived. I’m sure I will adjust, but like everything else, it will be a process.