A week on Grand Comoros

I have just left the Comoros after spending a week in Moroni on the island of Grand Comoros. It was my first time back in almost two years. Interestingly not much had changed. I still got a rather rude message on my phone saying “Your SIM card does not allow a connection to this network”, the electricity is off more than on and the Internet connection, while linked to the electricity supply, also has its own temperamental availability. On the positive side the people are as friendly as ever. I was met at the airport by my young friend, Fatouma, who had very diligently organised all the paperwork so that I was given a visa with no fuss at all and I might add, without any fee. She also accompanied me to my hotel and made sure that I was happy with the room before she departed for the night. It was so very refreshing to arrive in a foreign country and have the local coordinator tell me that his role is to support me so whatever I need is provided: sending a text message home on his phone to say I have arrived safely, escorting me to the bank to change money and collecting me and returning me to my hotel every work day. This is a far cry from the other countries I visit where I am left to fend for myself completely.

The work was rather trying not due to the participants in the workshop but rather due to the unavailability of the online database on which we were supposed to be working. Even when we had an Internet connection the database host company had its own problems with the server, leaving us up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Fortunately the Comorian participants are quite used to having to adapt to all sorts of situations so they were not thrown by having to work in a different way to what was expected. We have managed to complete the work by using text documents that I brought along but it does mean that once the database is back up and running I will have to capture all their data rather than having had them capture it directly themselves.

The Ministry of Fisheries in Moroni, Grand Comoros 

 Three of the participants working on updating the fisheries information

Some of the non-human inhabitants at the Ministry of Fisheries

On a different note I have learnt something about myself while in the Comoros, I have found out just what my priorities are! I have to leave the hotel at 7:30 to go to the office so the choice is to have a cold shower and go to breakfast at 7:00 when the restaurant opens or wait for the generator to switch on at 7:10 to have a hot shower and then miss breakfast. So I did not have breakfast! I really can’t bring myself to have a cold shower first thing in the morning (or at any other time really). My only concern with my last minute shower plan was that when I was met at the hotel to go to the office, my hair was still dripping wet (no hairdryer available). But this turned out not to be a problem as the 15 minute journey to the office was in a taxi with all the windows open – a natural blow-dry. Maybe not with quite the desired results ...

And while I am on the subject of taxis, the Comoros does not have any form of public transport so most people move about with taxis. These are all little four-door cars (mostly Renaults) that are in various stages of decay from missing side mirrors and scrapes and bumps to one I was that had hiccups to another that had a bad tyre that we could feel wobbling about. I had some concern that it might actually fall off before we made it to the Ministry’s offices. Taxis here are not exclusive so you join others in the taxi and/or they join you. Fortunately no more than four passengers though. I was also given the privilege of sitting in the front seat so I did not had to squeeze up against any strangers. The privilege is a bit dubious though because in the front seat there is a clear view of the horrendous driving skills of the drivers. I guess those guys also went to the international taxi driver school that teaches driving too fast, overtaking on blind rises and tailgating at the highest speed possible.

By the end of the week I was really looking forward to moving to Zanzibar. While I actually do like the hotel I stayed in, it has some shortfalls. The rooms are tiny with very little ventilation. This is good to keep mosquitoes out but unfortunately doesn't let any air in. So at night, with no electricity to run the standing fan, it was like a sauna. Strangely too, there are louvre windows in the bathroom that link one room to another. These windows were not closed properly and too high for me to get to so they let through a lot of sound (yes I heard everything my neighbours, a French couple, were up to!) and all the smoke from their mosquito coil. Now I generally chose not to use the coils. I would rather cover myself in repellent lotion than have my room and clothes sink of stale smoke. With this setup though I didn't need to burn my own coil, the neighbours smoke just drifted into my room. I could minimise it to some extent by closing the door by the time I left all my clothes smelt of smoke!

My room at the Jardin de la Paix Hotel

The trip to Zanzibar was so long. Firstly the flight left Grand Comoros an hour late. I wasn't all that concerned as I had a four-hour layover in Nairobi. After wondering around Jomo Kenyatta airport for an hour I glanced up at the flight departure board and noted with some horror that my flight to Zanzibar had been cancelled. I made my way to the service counter to see what was going on. There were a lot of angry people at the desk but none from my flight. I stood politely in the queue which was more of a bundle and waited my turn. People just pushed in front of me and the waiting went on and one. Eventually a nice man in a Gift of the Givers shirt indicated to me that I could get his space against the desk. This still didn't stop some guys trying to push me out the way but by that time the customer service person had seen me and asked me what I needed. I showed him my boarding pass and said that the board had my flight as cancelled. He took my boarding pass, tapped a few things into the computer, tore up the pass and handed me a new one. He said that I was now on a flight that would go to Zanzibar but via Dar es Salaam and the arrival time had changed from 00:15 to 01:15. I didn’t care as I was just so happy to be able to get there.

The flight out of Nairobi left late. That feels like the norm for Kenya Airways as all five of my flights so far have been delayed. The flight to Dar was uneventful. Most of the passengers got off the plane leaving about only ten of us so I guess that is why my original flight was cancelled. When we were taxiing out to continue onto Zanzibar, our pilot told us that the flight would be 15 minutes long with a cruising altitude of 7000 feet. It was indeed a strange flight and I’m not sure that cruising altitude was the correct term to use. We took off and landed, no cruising at all!

The airport in Dar es Salaam was deserted except for a handful of staff. I got my luggage and found a taxi as quick as I could but it was still 02:45 though by the time I got to the hotel. It was with huge relief that a security guard came to let me into the hotel and there was actually someone at reception. Thankfully I didn't have to check in to the hotel or go through any other formalities. Instead I was taken straight to my room so that I could get some sleep.

So now I have a week ahead of me on the spice island of Zanzibar.