Zanziblog

Over the past few years, the first fibre optic cable has been laid from the frozen north, where the Internet rules supreme, to Kenya, with links to Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8165077.stm. Last week it was formally switched on, with ceremonies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. This is good news. Africa is ready for it, as is shown by the interest in all means of communication (see the ZIFF post), as is shown by the enthusiasm in Zanzibits for both web and graphics design, and web programming. But it will take some time to get to Zanzibar, and my little saga shows the difficulties that still prevail here. Read more…

.. or how Martin (of whom more later) came to regret leaving Zanzibar. His passion is that for passion fruit (juice). Read more…

Martin finally left for Dar es Salaam. He is spending the afternoon in a meeting in Dar, and then heading back for Austria on Monday. Said then took me on a mini-tour of Stone Town - the University, many schools, including a Madrassa which is just another school (how hung-up about these things we get), and the local branch of Barclays (just in case). Read more…

Nasty comms problems, which I’ve just about sorted out now. It turns out that the only reliable communication between the Linux machines and my Windows machine is the XAMPP server that I’ve set up on my own machine! Accessing my machine as a server across the networks sometimes works, but more often not, FTP does not work, nor does Linux to Linux networking. Remote shell copy is not set up and, when I try, gives a bunch of errors. I finally set up a directory on my server for them to download files from, renaming files with PHP extension so they would not be interpreted on the server. Uploading from the Linux machines was more of a problem, and I finally ended up writhing my own PHP upload script, which works perfectly. Read more…

ZIFF is the Zanzibar International Film Festival, and was (almost) in full swing when I arrived here. It is a magnificently (dis)organised event which brings film makers, entrepreneurs, NGOs and chancers from all over East Africa and beyond. Martin (of whom more later), as well as running an NGO which brings sustainable technology to local people, made a film about the growing use of mobile phone technology in Africa. It is well worth watching (will publish the web version sometime). More below. It is an acknowledged fact that in Africa, the mobile phone has leaprfrogged land-line phone technology; almost all people here have a mobile - a SIM card costs £0.50, and calls are cheap. More of this later. Read more…

Not a good start: sitting on Air Egypt aeroplane for 2 hours without explanation (except in Arabic and inaudible English) as to what was going on. Made up time, and they held back the connection for us; we were corralled into a holding pen, and then sent dashing off to the Dar es Salaam plane, with minutes to spare. Minutes gave way to 10s of minutes as the luggage made its way at a more leisurely pace. A gentle start to not being a European in an Anglo-European context where you’re a not-quite-fitting-in person in a radically different culture. Refreshing.   Read more…

A few weeks ago (12th May, actually), I got a Skype chat from my friend Werner from Mewe : “would you be partial to an all expenses paid teaching holiday in Zanzibar from end June to mid-August?” Well, yes - what is there not to like about this idea? I spent 4 years in Ghana 4 decades ago, so the idea of going to East Africa was enticing.

It turns out that the expenses do not include beer, but apart from that it is just about doable if you get somebody to cook for you; I am looking into this, but more of that later.   Read more…