“Don’t do that!”
Just as I spoke those words, the immigration officer stood and ripped the camera from her hands. Oops. Wrong move, especially since we are having trouble getting onto the island. -__- With this incident being the only hang-up on a two and a half day trip to the other side of the world, I consider myself rather lucky. All of my flights were on-time and our luggage arrived without a problem. After arriving in Dar, Rizwan from our hotel picked us up at the airport.
The trip to City Center was rather long due to traffic; however, we made it back by 9:30 pm. Our room at the Safari Inn was nice and the staff was very helpful. They arranged to drop us off at the ferry port and purchased our tickets. After getting settled, we made the trek to Holiday Inn to hangout and have a light snack. Upon returning to the hotel, we went straight to bed to awake early for the ferry ride over to the island.
Upon arriving, we had our little incident. Kelsie, who I met up with in Chicago, and I roamed the streets of Zanzibar in search of our program director and the SIT office. After inquiring for information of their whereabouts from 20 or so people, we finally found them. Back to the port we went to sort ourselves out and by half past noon, we were on our way to a delicious lunch and day one of orientation.
As I sit writing, I hear the crowing of various tropical birds, the clucking of the hen and her chicks in the courtyard, the sounds of accelerating pikipiki, and the cheerful banter of young children playing outside their homes. Sounds which make me feel completely at ease about my situation and all the more excited for my term on Zanzibar. Tomorrow, we begin with Swahili studies and are taking a snorkeling trip.