Dolphins and stormy seas

What began as a sunny day with plans to snorkel with dolphins off the southern coast of Zanzibar quickly turned into the worst experience I had on the island. Not long into our boat trip, the weather turned the ocean from clear, calm and inviting to dark, rough and dangerous. Although we still spotted several dolphins, we cut the trip short and returned to shore where we weathered out the storm in a small shelter while eating fresh fish and chapati.
(I'm sure it's clear just from the length this post and its lack of detail that, while probably still worth mentioning, the day really wasn't a good experience.)

Buildings in Zanzibar

I saw this display in one of the museums in Stone Town and thought it was worth noting. I know the quality of the picture isn't very good, but notice the graph on the left that shows almost two-thirds of the buildings in Stone Town are deteriorating and only approximately an eighth are in good condition. On the right is a map of the city that gives a visual of these statistics. Even though you can't make out individual buildings in the photo, you can still notice that the majority of the map is red or brown, showing buildings that are deteriorating or in poor condition, and very little is yellow, indicating buildings that are in good condition.
It's really an unfortunate situation. Stone Town is home to some incredibly interesting architecture and amazing buildings, but the majority of the town is in shambles. So many of the buildings are crumbling, and even though there are efforts to repair some of them, I'm afraid it's going to take a lot to be able to repair everything that needs it.

Film Festival

I was lucky enough to arrive in Zanzibar in the middle of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF). The festival draws film makers, visual artists, acrobats, orchestras, traditional musicians, current African pop stars and fans from around the world.
The main venue of the festival is the Old Fort, located in the center of the town, just across the road from the ocean. The amphitheatre in the fort was the perfect location to watch films projected on an enormous screen.

After the evening films, the festival continued with music and festivities. Groups came to Zanzibar from across east Africa to perform.

Zanzibar for Obama

If the rest of the world could vote for the American president, I'm pretty sure the race would have already been decided. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with taxi drivers and shop owners, coworkers and strangers, children and adults, about everyone's favorite candidate - Barack Obama.

In Stone Town, there is a tree right in the middle of a park that bears a painted portrait of Mr. Obama. When I came back by this tree later in the afternoon, the concrete base around it had been spray painted with the phrase, 'OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT'.
While I admired the artwork, Masoud Salim, the self-proclaimed director of the 'Zanzibar for Obama' campaign, introduced himself to me. He gave both my friend and I his business cards (conveniently printed on the back of an old menu from an Indian restaurant) and was thrilled when my friend pulled Obama's book, 'Audacity of Hope', out of her beach bag.

Travel agent spa

Who would have guessed we would get a massage in the same office where we booked our trips to see the dolphins and the Jozani Forest??