Unpredictable Zanzibar

My heart sank last night as the electricity went off again and all the generators started up. The thought going through my head was how on earth could we afford another day like Monday with an on and off power and Internet supply. The problem was apparently Tanzania-wide though and not just a failing of the supply to Zanzibar and by 10 pm the normal supply was restored. Of course this didn't mean that our problems ended there ...

The Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS), where we are working, had decided to change their Internet service provider to a new one and chose today to make the change. This is not good news when the database you are using is only available online! So we had about 30 minutes from our start time until the connection to the old provider was terminated and then there was nothing while the server is reconfigured for the new provider and the account is activted. This left us unable to work at all. Fortunately the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA), who are located across the road, has kindly let us move into their conference room and use their Internet connection. Actually it is a much faster connection and once everyone settled down in the new environment things went really well. I spent the morning reviewing the work that has been done over the past two days and they really have done a fantastic job. As I have said before, things start off slowly but once they get going the work is tackled with much enthusiasm and diligence.

One of the most noticeable differences that I have seen in Stonetown between this visit and all my previous ones is the increase in the number of dogs that are around and a decrease in the cat population - is this a species replacement :-) Most of these dogs belong to people and are on long leashes and seem well looked after. There is a stray though that lives in the vacant plot below my hotel window. It is a remarkable dog. It can't bend its hind legs at all but nevertheless manages to get around perfectly alright and has this really cute way of tossing its legs next to its body in order to lie down. It is a very happy-go-lucky dog that wags its tail at everyone who passes by no matter dog or human.

The only cats I have seen this time have been three mangy looking creatures sitting at the beach where the fishers land their fish. It is quite strange to see cats sitting on the sand at the high water mark but they get fed the fish entrails there so wait patiently for the fishers to bring the night's catches to the beach each morning. What a relief to not hear all the caterwauling that used to go on every night!

Until tomorrow when I bring you more things you never thought you wanted to know ... :-)

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