Mzungu in Zanzibar!

 

On our first night in Zanzibar, we went to the local outdoor food court for dinner.  It was a lively setting right on the water and the food displays were beautiful.  We got a plateful of fish from our first friend, pictured on the next page, and within minutes of sitting down to eat we were approached by three 14 year-old boys who wanted to practice their English with us.   Not 2 minutes into the conversation, the boys invited us to their village.  We had to explain to them that in our culture, we don't go to stranger's homes.  I was pretty embarrassed to admit it, but we wanted them to understand why we couldn't immediately say yes.  But sure enough, after about an hour of great conversation, we agreed to meet up with them the next day to walk the 45 minutes to their village.  Mzungu is the local word for "white person".  It is not a pejorative term, most of the time, but it is ubiquitous.

Justin with our first Zanzibari friend and a glass of freshly-squeezed cane juice.

One of the many topics discussed that night was, how far away is the moon.  These boys had NO IDEA and were fascinated by how much Justin knew about the world!

Justin pinky-swearing with the boys that we would meet up with them in the morning.