The tide was in so I couldn’t walk on the beach at the hotel so I went along the road and then joined the beach further along where there was a greater expanse of sand. So local women said I was not allowed to take pictures of their seaweed hanging up to dry. It seemed a bit. They asked for money and I declined. That’s what Zanzibar is like – everyone with their hands out wanting your money. Hawkers in Stone Town are remorseless. I cannot imagine what it would be like to live their as a white person.
There weren’t many people on the beach. It was about 4pm and the place was quiet. I crossed the road and found a football pitch. I sat there on some old tyres which mark the edge of the pitch and waited for children to come. It didn’t take long and I handed out some pencils I had and gave away my frisbee. It was pretty rubbish anyway because it was too light to fly properly. The kids were happy and asking for a photo. I was happy to oblige and then they all crowded round the tiny screen on my phone to have a look at the results.
Pencils gone and stock of balloons depleted I walked back the beach at the same time as the sun was getting low in the sky behind me and the horizon started changing colour from blue and white to orange and pink and purple.
Some Masai working in security at local hotels had gathered in the relative cool of the evening to play volleyball. They made a fantastic spectacle against the dying of the day. It amused me to see they were still wearing their machetes/pangas but had thrown their clubs in a pile in the shade.
They insisted I join in so I played a few minutes and then realised that the sun was setting quickly and rushed back to the safety of the hotel before I was left walking blindly in the dark trying to find my bed.
I don;t think I will ever get tired of seeing Masai. Everywhere you go in Tanzania they are there. It’s sad that they can earn more money from working in security and car parking than in their traditional cattle raising. Testimonial evidence suggests that numbers of Masai in cities is growing steadily. Perhaps eventually there will be none in Arusha at all.