On mainland Tanzania, approximately half the population is Muslim and the other half is Christian. These percentages change when you get to Zanzibar where there are approximately 90% Muslim and 10% Christian. For the past month, the Muslim population has been celebrating Ramadan. The outwardly signs of Ramadan are that the evening call to prayer is extended from about 10 minutes to 30 minutes (there are 5 calls to prayer per day) and several restaurants close, as there is a sharp reduction in business because the Muslim population is fasting. The fast lasts from 4 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. when the sun sets. The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid al Fitr, a two day holiday. As Eid occurs at the first sighting of the new moon, it is a little difficult to predict when exactly Eid is going to fall. It is not enough that a calendar says there should be a new moon; the new moon has to be sighted by a specially appointed person. On Tuesday evening, we eagerly awaited text messages confirming that Eid started on Wednesday. The moon was sighted and the holiday was on. It all worked out rather well for me, as it gave Wes and I a chance to hang out on Wednesday before he left on a jet plane to the UK.
As Eid fell on Wednesday and Thursday (and not Thursday and Friday as hoped), plans to get out of Dar for the long weekend were scrapped. Instead, Cristiano and I took off on a dalla dalla to visit a village called Gezolole that, according to our guidebooks, had a budding local arts scene. After bumping down a dirt road, the dalla dalla stopped and we were gently told that we had reached Gezolole. My first impression was that there was not a lot to Gezolole, other than a few scattered buildings and some extremely healthy looking chickens. We quickly found out that the budding arts scene had died on the vine. However, Gezolole does have a beautiful beach that is populated by groups of young children harvesting molluscs from the low tide pools.
On mainland Tanzania, approximately half the population is Muslim and the other half is Christian. These percentages change when you get to Zanzibar where there are approximately 90% Muslim and 10% Christian. For the past month, the Muslim population has been celebrating Ramadan. The outwardly signs of Ramadan are that the evening call to prayer is extended from about 10 minutes to 30 minutes (there are 5 calls to prayer per day) and several restaurants close, as there is a sharp reduction in business because the Muslim population is fasting. The fast lasts from 4 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. when the sun sets. The end of Ramadan is marked by Eid al Fitr, a two day holiday. As Eid occurs at the first sighting of the new moon, it is a little difficult to predict when exactly Eid is going to fall. It is not enough that a calendar says there should be a new moon; the new moon has to be sighted by a specially appointed person. On Tuesday evening, we eagerly awaited text messages confirming that Eid started on Wednesday. The moon was sighted and the holiday was on. It all worked out rather well for me, as it gave Wes and I a chance to hang out on Wednesday before he left on a jet plane to the UK.
As Eid fell on Wednesday and Thursday (and not Thursday and Friday as hoped), plans to get out of Dar for the long weekend were scrapped. Instead, Cristiano and I took off on a dalla dalla to visit a village called Gezolole that, according to our guidebooks, had a budding local arts scene. After bumping down a dirt road, the dalla dalla stopped and we were gently told that we had reached Gezolole. My first impression was that there was not a lot to Gezolole, other than a few scattered buildings and some extremely healthy looking chickens. We quickly found out that the budding arts scene had died on the vine. However, Gezolole does have a beautiful beach that is populated by groups of young children harvesting molluscs from the low tide pools. 
1 comment:
Good on you for keeping up the blog. How do you say: "You eat the dirt, chump" in Swahili?
Have fun over there, kuku.
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