Our trip to Pemba was jam-packed every day with different excursions. Rather than talking in detail about only a few things, I'm going to give a brief description of each of the trips we took.
Day 1: On our flight from Stone Town to Pemba there were only 12 seats. With 13 students, that mean one of us had to be co-pilot. I sat shotgun on one of the most beautiful flights ever!
Day 3: We went to a rubber tree farm! Rubber literally pours out of the tree like sap out of a maple tree, but there are many steps to the process. They combine the liquid from the tree with an acid solution and then hang it out side to dry for a week (the drying rubber smells absolutely horrid). Next it goes to a smoke house to kill all the bacteria. The final step is to stretch all the pieces together to make these massive rubber balls. Unfortunately, they don't bounce like you might think; each one weighs about 75 pounds.
While we stayed with our homestay families, our academic director stayed in a hotel. This is the view from the top of his hotel over the surrounding village.
Places we visited but not pictured:
-the public health laboratory where they research diseases of concern in Zanzibar
-Charcoal production
-House construction
-The Ngezi Forest
Day 2: We visited an organic farm run by the head of the Zanzibar department of agriculture. Looking back at my pictures, I found that I took more than 100 of chickens and bananas alone so I thought those would be appropriate to share. He talked to us about the many uses of chicken and cow poop but I was to distracted looking at baby animals.
Day 3: We went to a rubber tree farm! Rubber literally pours out of the tree like sap out of a maple tree, but there are many steps to the process. They combine the liquid from the tree with an acid solution and then hang it out side to dry for a week (the drying rubber smells absolutely horrid). Next it goes to a smoke house to kill all the bacteria. The final step is to stretch all the pieces together to make these massive rubber balls. Unfortunately, they don't bounce like you might think; each one weighs about 75 pounds.
Day 4: We went to a sea salt production facility. The process is very simple: they pump water from the ocean into large open rectangles and wait for the water to evaporate and leave only the salt. Because they don't treat the final product, it is illegal to export and only used in Zanzibar.
Day 5: The Pemba flying fox is a species of bat only found on the island of Pemba. They have tried introducing the animal elsewhere, but for unknown reasons they have been unsuccessful. We were walking through the forest unsure exactly where we would find the bats. Our guide told us to look up and there were hundreds of the bats just hanging around in the trees.
The cuties from my homestay in Pemba loved my hair! The older two were a little rough but the littlest one was my favorite because she didn't try to rip my hair out. And she didn't talk a million miles per hour so I could actually understand when she spoke to me.
Day 6: We went to Misali Island, a smaller island off the coast of Pemba. There are three caves connected to the ocean that locals swim in (we weren't allowed to). The intertidal area is filled with clams. It doesn't look as cool in pictures but the clams in person are so beautiful. When we went snorkeling, I saw an octopus! I have to steal pictures later because I don't have an underwater camera.
Day 7: Before tourism was popular in Zanzibar, the major source of income was clove production. The bags are filled with dried cloves and the metal tins are filled with clove oil both of which are exported around the world. We got a tour of the production facility where they also harvest eucalyptus and cinnamon oil. However, during this time of the year the primary focus is on the production of cloves.
While we stayed with our homestay families, our academic director stayed in a hotel. This is the view from the top of his hotel over the surrounding village.
Places we visited but not pictured:
-the public health laboratory where they research diseases of concern in Zanzibar
-Charcoal production
-House construction
-The Ngezi Forest
Great pics, Hannifa!
ReplyDeleteThe Roman word salarium, the Roman word salarium linked employment, salt and soldiers, but the exact link is very clear. The latest common theory is that the word soldier itself comes from the Latin sal dare (to give salt), but previous theories were on the same ground. Alternatively, the Roman historian Pliny the Elder stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that "[I]n Rome. . .the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word salary derives from it...".
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