Going home tomorrow...

Hi all,
Yes, this is my last whole day in Zanzibar. Tomorrow I'm taking a ferry to Dar es Salaam and I'll be back in Finland on Sunday morning. So the forest fire spoiled our plans to go to Kandwi but instead I managed to take part of the fire fighting operation in Bambi where the forest fire was still going on. I know, it appears more glamorous than it was and I don't think that I was helping much, but it was quite interesting experience. Although I haven't ever heard word "mzungu" (which means white person) so often than that time in forest. I guess everybody were wondering what on earth I was doing there and to be honest, sometimes I wondered it myself too... I guess it was so odd, that woman from Dar Es Salaam media was filming me. So maybe I'm celebrity now, who knows :D At that evening my friend Maria, who is studying now in University of Dar es Salaam, came here and it was really nice to have company. On Thursday we went to the office to gather some information and after that we went to shopping with Miza, who works in DCCFF. It was really nice experience to go shopping with local person, she knew all the best places and we had really nice time.

So this is my last greetings from Zanzibar. I hope that someone has red the blog and maybe even enjoied doing it. Zanzibar has been an experience I will remember very long but home is home and I will return to Finland gladly with great experiences and memories of sun :D

Virve

Greetings again from Zanzibar

Hello all,
I just got back to Stone Town from beautiful Kendwa, where it is very easy to forget that anything bad exists in the world. Reality stroke back when I arrived in Stone Town and called to Tamrini who was at that moment fighting against a forest fire. Again! This time it was in Bambi village which we had visited earlier. Tomorrow I was supposed to take part of training a group in Kandwi but due to the forest fire it seems unlikely now. But I do have lots of other things to do here, finishing the brochures and the report for example.

This time I will write only briefly because the clock is ticking and my internet time is about to end soon. Just want to say greetings to all my friends, I'll be seeing you soon. And Emilia, I miss your company :)

Virve

Jambo!

Another week in Zanzibar is at the end. After the last update we have burned ourselves in the sun, rode bicycles at coral stone road and also noticed that there can be quite big spiders in dala-dala. Ok, so we made some brochures at the beginning of this week at the DCCFF office. We have also wrote our report on our spare time, so we have had a busy week. One day we decided to took day-off and headed to the beach but once again we noticed that the sun cannot be underestimated here: result of our beach day was pink skin. Yesterday we visited the Jozani forest. Tamrini was kind enough to arrange a transportation there. Unfortunately there was a forest fire in Jozani so he went to see the situation with lots of watering cans. We didn't get to put out the forest fire maybe it would have been too dangerous so we just stayed in the safer side of Jozani. There we saw quite a few red colobus monkeys in the forest. One of them was so curious that it touched my shoe and put it's little face very close to my camera objective. We had also chance to improve our biking skills with some kinds of bicycles. We rode about 1,5 kilometers to see the mangrove forest. It was quite amazing experience and the forest was really nice too. After walking in forest and playing with monkeys we took a dala-dala back to Stone Town. I must say that it's always kind of an adventure to travel with dalas. This time fire woods were piled on the roof of the bus and we had to stop once in a while to collect the woods from the road. Lucky for us the male passengers did that. Besides little delays there was a huge spider running on the floor. Yeah, some things I won't be missing...

So next we are heading to north. I'm going to spend couple of days in beaches of Kendwa and Emilia is heading far more north all the way to Finland. So next week it's just me, but I try to update the greetings from here every now and then.

Virve and Emilia

Working and visiting the Zanzibar park

Last Saturday we decided to go to local Zanzibar park to see some animals. The park is really new and it was opened only a few weeks ago. Therefore some parts were still under construction. We saw there e.g. zebras, hyenas, baboons, python, baby crocodiles and different kind of birds like lovebirds and vultures. We also fed again some tortoises (giant and small ones) and rode with camel. It was really exciting to ride and we were both quite relieved when it was over. The highlight of our visit was when we were aloud to hold hyena babies. They were really cute and it is so strange how something so cute can turn to something not so cute when it is older.

On Sunday we tried to go to the beach for the first time. There was suppose to be a beach quite near of Stone town. Well there was a beach but not a beach where you could swim. There were only some local men fishing and because of the tide the water was very far from the shore. So our beach day was not so successful but maybe next time we will find a better beach.

Yesterday and today we have been making flyers and brochures of the products that people are selling in their villages. The idea is to advertise the local products to hotels and tourists and increase the income of the villagers.


Emilia and Virve

P.S Yesterday we were called albinos. Seems that it is really time for us to head to beach!

Friday greetings from warm Zanzibar

Were just sitting on the terrace of Livingstone beach restaurant and watching a rat running up and down on a coconut tree :)Yes, but let's get to the point. So this week has been very busy and we have had opportunity to see and done lots of things. On Wednesday was our last official village visit to Kilombero. We got chance to see how the honey is collected from the beehives among other things. On Thursday we were suppose to have day-off, but when we got chance to see how women of Mchangani were trained to dye palm leafs for making baskets, we seized the opportunity and went to see training in action. We also got to take part by splitting the palm leafs before they were dyed.

Today we had an exciting day. First we took the dala-dala (local minibus) very first time to the DCCFF office and then we had our presentation to DCCFF staff about the baseline survey, which Noora and Eve made last time here. People had very good and constructive comments and the whole occasion succeeded quite well. On the way home we celebrated by buying some fresh tomatoes from Darajani market and some chapatis near our hotel. So, it is weekend and we are planning to go tomorrow to the Zanzibar Park. Maybe we even get some time to hop on dala-dala and go some beach to swim a bit.

By the way, we are so familiar sights here in Livingstone restaurant with our laptop that the staff has started to greet us like friends :) I must say, that this has been a very good opportunity to recall what we learned in swahili course in Turku. But now it's time to have something to eat. Baadaye! (see you later)

Virve and Emilia

More villages and the caves

On Sunday we went to the national museum of Zanzibar which was really interesting and there was also a bit cooler than outside. We also did some shopping in the local shops. So now we have some souvenirs. On Monday the visits to the villages continued and we saw more some vegetable fields, chickens and some quite ugly ducks. We went also to the beach in Matemwe were local fishermen sold their fish on the sand and kids were cleaning them. All the kids here know how to say hello in Italian because there are so much Italian tourists. So every time they see us they say Ciao. This is the first country when someone has thought we are Italians:) By the way we have also heard to be sisters and once even twins. Maybe we have spent too much time together;)Today we went to see how people where growing some seaweed in Kiwengwa beach. They were very colorful: blue, green, red and purple. The last stop today was in the cave in Kiwengwa. The cave has been made to be a tourist attraction by support of the earlier project (Kiwa) of Turku Geographical Society. Everything there seemed to be almost ready just tourists were missing. The caves are really beautiful and very big. It is dark inside the cave and we had flashlights to see our steps. We saw lots of bats, big spiders, ants, and one very very big millipede. Very exciting and we recommend it for everyone but remember to wear long trousers and decent shoes because ants in your pants is not a nice experience;) Trust me!



Emilia and Virve

Weekend greetings from Zanzibar

We found a really nice cafe with wireless internet connection so we are sitting on a pillows and drinking cold ginger beer and enjoying the opportunity by blogging of course. Yesterday we went to street market to test the limit of our tummies with a grilled banana and coconut bread. Later we went to a restaurant to hear some local taarab music. Today was officially our first day-off and we decided to spend it like real tourists. We booked a boat to Prison Island, which lies 30 minutes boat ride away from Stone Town. It was supposed to be a prison in 19th century, but due to cholera and black plague it was changed to quarantine island. Nowadays there is a hotel and it is a home to 118 really really sympathetic giant tortoises which have lived there almost hundred years. We even got to feed them some spinach. We also saw little antelopes, no higher than 35-45cm, called digi-digi and some birds. After watching animals we went to the coral reef to snorkel and for the first time in my life I put the flippers and the mask on and went to the ocean. Emilia had had one experience before, so we were both amateurs. Corals were fantastic, it felt that we were part of some Natural Geography document. Fish were really colorful and we saw also lots of spiky sea urchins. No barracudas, no sharks as our guide promised to us. Our Saturday here continues so, that we are trying to find some decent place to eat and because our very high work ethics :D, maybe some report writing too. Tomorrow we are also planning to do some work by shopping. It IS important to get to know already existing products if were trying to do some marketing here. Don't you think?

Oh, and Happy Halloween to everyone!

Virve and Emilia

Visiting villages

Hello,

It has been really hot and humid in Zanzibar. Even the locals say that it is too hot so it is not just we. Today we drank first time coconut juice in a market place and it was really good:) Yesterday and today we visited four different villages with Tamrini and other guys from DCCFF. The idea is to learn about the livelihoods and take some pictures of the products. We can use the pictures to make some brochures etc. In the villages we saw how women were doing some handcrafts like baskets and clay pots. Some of them are going to get more training to do bigger and more decorated things especially for tourists. We saw also some fields were people were growing vegetables(egg plants, onions, water melons etc) and woodlods were they grow akasia trees for building materials. Some of them are also keeping bees and having chickens. We have used to get the attention of the children when they see us especially in the villages. Once we even got hugs.



Emilia and Virve

Previously on Emilia's and Virve's trip...

Since the last update we have seen monkeys and peacocks in Dar es Salaam's urban jungle, took a three hour ferry ride to Zanzibar and saw some dolphins from the deck. We also got sunburnt during that ferry ride, despite of the +40 sun lotion and the fact that we were sitting in the shadow. Lesson? Don't ever underestimate the power of the sun near the equator. We have also witnessed a few tropical rainshowers here, but we have manage to stay quite dry.
Today we saw Tamrini, the DCCFF project coordinator and all the other staff there. We made some plans for the next three weeks and tomorrow we start visiting villages, Bambi and Tunduni first.We are really looking forward to get to know the villages and start to cooperate with them. We have also started to prepare our presentation about baseline survey, which Noora and Eve made last time here. Our presentation should be on 6th of November.
Stone Town is a place where people with no sense of directions can easily get lost. Yes, that's us. Hopefully we manage to move around more easily after spending little more time here. We try to load some pictures here, but because the net connections are what they are, it may not happen...

In Dar es Salaam 26.10.2009

Hello everybody,

We are finally in Dar es Salaam after very exhausting flights. We even got our backbags:) The weather is here very hot and humid but we hope we will get used to it. Today we visited the national museum and we saw the scull of Australopithecus. We recocgnised our ancestor. We have also bought the tickets to Zanzibar for tomorrow. People have been very nice for us (wazungu) and we have already used our kiswahili skills:)But now we go to eat something! We will get back to you later! Kwa herini tutaonana!

Emilia and Virve

Emilia and Virve heading to Tanzania today

Hello readers,
Only few hours and I'll take a bus to airport. There I shall meet Emilia and due to this marvelous time-switch we have great opportunity to spend there one extra hour. Jei! Neither one of us has been in Africa before, so we are quite anxious to see how it is over there. Our plane leaves at 6.30 am, from Helsinki-Vantaa we are flying first to Amsterdam then Nairobi and from there to Dar Es Salaam where we have planned to stay couple of nights. Then we will take boat to Zanzibar where we can really start to work with the project.

Ok, do I have everything under control? Let's see...
Backpack? Packed. Passport? checked (at least three times).Camera? Checked. Big bag of medicine? Packed. Salmiakki? Yes, it's packed too:)Me? Well, I think I'm ready to go!

Virve

One week left

Hello all!

Only a bit over one week left of this trip.
We have finished the village visits. Now we have started to go through all the interviews we made. This should take a few days, as there is quite a lot of people we have interviewed.

On Tuesday we had an exciting day. We had left from the last village and were driving along this small road near the forest reserve. There we met some guys with a big load of wood which was apparently illegally cut from the forest. It took some time to talk with the guys and move the wood from their wagon to our car. Then it took some more time to report about them at the police station. Apparently they will get a big fine which can be something like 300 000 TSH (one years income for many people).

Tomorrow we head to the Jozani forest to see a bit of the southern part of the island. Maybe we'll also see some more monkeys there.

News from Z'bar

Hello!

During this week we have been visiting some of the villages around the KPFR. We have visited Bambi, Tunduni, Mchangani, Kilombero, Pangeni. Also we have seen some of their schools and some of their livelihoods (like beehives). All has gone well, people have been really nice and it has been nice to see life outside Stone Town. Next week we'll continue with the visits.



Today we went to see the caves from the last project (KIWA). Building for tourist reception and toilets seem to be in good condition, water tank/pump isn't working yet but should be ready for the in july when the caves should be opened to public.



We also went for a little walk in the forest around the caves and we were lucky and saw the red colobus monkeys. There seemed to be quite many of them and we even saw one with a baby. There was also a lot of butterflies around (and bats in the caves). We also went to see another cave from which water is pumped to the nearby hotels.






Now we are off to try the Zanzibarian banana-chocolate pizza. Byebye!

-Eve and Noora

Our first greetings from Zanzibar

We survived the weekend in Dar and now looking forward for the first weekend in Zanzibar. We have mainly tried to get used to the climate and culture and also tried to find our way around Stone Town's narrow streets.
We also have visited our local coordinator and project personnel in DCCFF.
We have been planning the baseline survey with Tamrini and other staff and we have made some progress also. Next week we will start survey in the villages, starting from Bambi village. We are supposed to get the survey done during the next two weeks. At the same time we probably will visit the caves from the Kiwa- project also.
In the weekend we were planning to get to know the northern coast so hoping for a good weather!

We had a nice picture to put here but this computer doesn't accept our memory stick so sorry for that. We'll try again next time!

26 hours untill we go

Hi all!

Only 26 hours untill our bus leaves from Turku. I'm starting to feel a bit excited, I guess it really hits when you step into the airplane.
There is still a lot of packing to do, we'll see how much we forget to take and how much stuff we have that we don't really need.

Eve (and Noora)

Heading to Zanzibar

LIVE project participants, Eve and Noora, are heading to Zanzibar on the 1st of May. They are going to spend there one month working as volunteers. During this time they will co-operate with the local partners in order to acquaint themselves with the current situation in the villages around the Kiwengwa-Pongwe Forest Reserve.

The objective of their journey is to survey the current socio-economical state of the participating villages. The study will function as a framework for the project during the next three years. Eve and Noora will share their latest news once in a while in this blog. Stay tuned!



LIVE-projektilaiset Eve ja Noora suuntaavat Sansibarille toukokuun ensimmäisenä päivänä ja viettävät siellä kokonaisen kuukauden. Tänä aikana he tutustuvat yhdessä sansibarilaisten yhteistyökumppaneiden kanssa projektin lähtötilanteeseen. Eve ja Noora käyvät tutustumassa Kiwengwa-Pongwe-metsäalueeseen sekä sen ympärillä oleviin kyliin.

Hankematkan tavoitteena on kartoittaa projektiin osallistuvien kylien tämän hetkinen sosio-ekonominen tilanne, joka antaa suuntaviivat hankkeen etenemiselle seuraavien kolmen vuoden ajan. Eve ja Noora kertovat kuulumisistaan ja projektin etenemisestä aika ajoin. Olkaa kuulolla!