Stone Town and home

Bye bye Chumbe hello my last day of holiday and once we were dropped back on the mainland shore I decided to investigate the this drop off -pick up location as there was much more to it. The hotel is nestled and within and captures some of the Mbweni Ruins.

These ruins date were a Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) base and settlement for former slaves in the 19th century. The ruins of St Mary’s School for Girls, built by missionaries for girls freed from slave ships, orphaned girls boarded and those with families would come during the day and the surrounding land provided the families with a place tomlive and cultivate with up to 250 families living around it

next up I was taking myself to a rooftop bar in Stone Town for lunch and a view before my tour.

It's amazing how sometimes one person can throw your mojo off. Transportation on my final day has not been my friend.... Taxi not turning up.....then not knowing where he was going so I had to get Google maps out. Then I am still not sure what he was trying to achieve so I said stop the car my bag is on wheels I will walk.

Queue the next issue someone chatting and walking with you. Now come on Libby I hear you say on the one hand you moan about not having anyone to talk to too and now you moan about people wanting to talk to you.🤯 My full tourist defences were up,  it was a 250 m walk though he tried to take me on a bigger loop when I pointed out I knew where I was going. Then when I got to my destination he obviously wanted a tip and proceeded to yell at me in the hotel reception. If I had cash I would almost would  of paid to him go away. My buttons had been pushed too far. Times .like this that make me question travelling and 100% staying in the quieter places to not have to deal with that. 

I get tourism is the primary income here and it must be incredibly hard to make a living and I seemingly look like a bunch of $notes because aside from local currency that's what they want, but I am not.

At lunch I did wonder whether I woold be able to hack a walking tour filled with people Jambo-ing and Madam- ing me.

But from the top of tea rooms at the Emersen Hotel after a lovely lunch and maybe a Pimms or two I took it on and I had my own private tour guid to protect me! 

Now, I am not going to attempt to recount all the history of  Stone Town just random bits that I have no doubt distortedly remembered.

It is a Unesco historical site with a highly varied history and ultimately Tanzania is quite a young country only gaining influence in the 60s. 

Some interesting things that perhaps you would always hear. Stone town is 50:50 local population and tourist accommodation. I have been to a few UNESCO sites and this one took me a little while to get my head around. The streets are so narrow in order to help keep you cool, an Arabic influence, they are basically pavement width and it's fair game for mopeds so can be bit full on. Any building that needs renovating so they don't fall down which quite a few look like they might, you either need to sort or the government will effectively sell it for you to someone who can maintain it so that they maintain the status.

the water system just runs around on the outside of the walls weaving into the electric cables. If you don't pay your bill they just pull the pipe!

The Town is clash/combination/blend or harmony I am not sure which following a series foreign country rulers/invaders 

Church, mosques and Indian temples all sit side by side, the architecture can be shown to reflect many different countries. The history here is rich and painful.

Ornate doors that combine Arabic and Indian features mainly made to indicate wealth

The slave trade and conditions under which slaves were gathered and kept is astonishing

 50-75 people/children in a room like this barely any daylight or fresh air. The room relied upon upon the tides and the lagoon water washing in along the floor allowing them to wash but also to wash everything out. Sadly the lagoon water was getting fairly full of some nasty stuff so a lot of disease.

They Slave market which now has an Angliciaan church built on top of it. Still has some signs of the history. The base of the whipping post where slaves were whipped not because they did something wrong but to see how strong they were. The less they cried out in pain the more money they were worth.

I also took the time to read the history of the slave trade and abolishing and by the end I was crushed at how humanity can and has behaved. There is too much to describe but here are two points that surprised me/made me think.

When the slaves were freed there was an aspect of the people still not really having freedom......they had no land and no job...some pushed out claimed land and began to grow and had skilled craftsmanship. Others were almost stuck in a different type of slavery where all though freed they then had to go through the British Navy who assigned them a job or a role, not naval based but they were beholden. Or if you knew no different some stayed on the farms they were slaves at.

If you were freed that didn't mean that you children were they seemingly often still belonged to the traders, so again making it difficult to leave.

While the years have passed by the family history here isn't one that people want to know. To be a descendant of a slave is seen very poorly / negatively here. 

There are some more quirky and jolly aspects to it.....Freddy Mercury was born here and lived here until he was 10....so he gets a museum.

The dispensary  now returned back to being a hospital has one hell of tale of the man who originally built it. A young boy from India who fell asleep on a Dhow and woke up in Zanzibar! Anyway he worked hard to read and write and became useful to the sultan with this skill and ran the trading port effectively skimming some.money for himself! Once he had a reasonable amount of money and reputation he popped back to India waved at his parent and picked up some friends to come work with him in Zanzibar. As he got older he was worried no one would remember him so he built the dispensary........or it was built to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Truth has a fine line!

Portuguese fort which was then reinforced by the Arabs when they came and defeated at the requested of the local people, a decision that lead to an even worse outcome. It is now a market and public space.

I am also beginning to realise that cats are the wildlife of Stone Town.....and they all look  healthy and that is because there is a charity taking care of them and striving to reduce the population

There was so much more I could write from , the amphitheatre , the palace , the gardens, night street food, the tree the queen planted but they don't know which on it is, the markets....the fish one is a lot stinkier at the end of the day

With your finished I awaited my taxi and the start of the journey and end of the blog Homeward bound via Nairobi....with Kenyan Airways....seat 14J....as I tried to work out where that might be in the row...... I did not expect to walk on to a plane that only had 4 seats in a row.....do the alphabet maths on that! Makes sense because it's a short trip.....but I did wonder if there were such things as cut and shunt planes...maybe they cut the middle out and stuck it back together 😂🤣🤯

Nairobi airport you are if possible off my list of transfer airports..... Some interesting signage that saw many people going in circles and shouting at each other and 3 security scans between planes. Makes you think what do people do but they were very nervous/conscious of me being a transfer passenger and that they must get my bag.... Only time will tell.... But good job I brought my new hat with me!

Obviously no bag appeared on the carousel at Heathrow  but then barely any did. I had sat there for over an hour and maybe 10 bags went past....then they announced they were coming shortly just as I had started to wander over to baggage services, I dutifully returned to the belt.....15 mins, 20 mins.....no new bags. So I went back to the services desk and asked if they could just use that fairly useful loud hailer of theirs to update people I for one would be notably happier. Blah blah blah usual fun of people getting irrate at BA and the wonderful terminal 5, these lovely touch screen missing bag report stations, which initially said yes you have a bag but the wouldn't give me a next button, then said no your bag does not exist! Ha ha. The lady next to me was really having fun she had an air tag on her bag and could see that it was here......but the man just said well we don't know where it is.....bloody brilliant! On the plus side I did not inflate on the way home but I am fairly sure something ate me on the my flight!

Anyway I filled out the form, questioning if I will ever see my bag and went outside to take in a big long gulp of cold, grey, wet British air. How I have missed you....

Thank you for reading my poorly written tales, it has meant a HUUUUGE amount to think that there are some on the journey with me. This is almost the end but not quite as I know you are all wondering about my new hat..............