Sat 27 th – Blue Safari

After a hard day’s work, we decided to have our first leisure day, and headed for the Blue Safari Tour. It was a day long snorkeling trip, with unfortunately more travelling than snorkeling, and one too many Italian tourists. Although there was a lot to see, the reef and fishes were lacking the ‘rainbow colours’ that we were hoping to see. However, the lunch more than made up for the snorkeling. We were served lobster, shrimp and octopus, which tasted exactly like bacon! Boat trip back to Zanzibar was a challenge, because in a mean while had risen strong wind that almost ripped our overcrowded boat into pieces. Fortunately we passed a mangrove swamp on our way back where we found a windless place to heal the sails and to continue crossing the bay more smoothly. After arriving back to the shore, everybody felt a bit sunburned.






/Kati, Markus and Jan

Friday 26th – Harvesting and drying seaweed

It was rise and shine at 7am to meet three local women who would show us what was involved in planting, collecting and drying the seaweed. To help us with interpretation, we had a local friend, Able, from the Zanzibar Adventure School. Small pieces of seaweed were tied to the ropes and left to grow for 2 weeks in shallow water. Thereafter they were retied and left for another month before they were harvested. The harvested seaweed was left to dry, where they lost about 50% of their weight, and each kg of dried seaweed was then sold for 180 Tanzanian Shillings (~0.18 USD).










After breakfast we had a lecture from Rasmus, one of the teachers at Zanzibar Adventure School, about the environmental impacts associated with growing seaweed. He also described another project in testing phases about using seaweed as a fertilizer. At the moment, local women are using a ‘slash and burn’ agricultural method, where big parts of forests are burnt to release nutrients to the land to grow crops. This causes big ecological problems here as the land is destroyed thereafter. Rasmus also brought us to see the actual plantations where the testing was carried out.




After that, we visited the Seaweed Center, and seeing how much had been done was an awesome experience! Everyone fell in love with the buildings, even though they were not complete, and have a look at them for yourself in the pictures below!

Thur 25th - A Flying Arrival

We literally hit the ground running upon our arrival in Dar Es Salaam! We had a mere two hours to clear the customs, pick up our bags, and head to the ferry towards Zanzibar. It was no easy feat to weave through the traffic and we were slipping and sliding like hot butter in between two pieces of toast. It was only in the bus that we realized how hot the weather was, but coming from the frozen lands of Sweden, we had promised that we wouldn’t complain about the weather! Some local people were coming up to us selling grapes and water and other fruits when our bus stopped at traffic lights, and it was also quite a shock sometimes to see a head suddenly bobbing by the side of the window unexpectedly. We were surprised how nice the ferry was and it looked like a small cruise ship. The ferry was followed by another hour of daladala ride (the local form of taxi) on Zanzibar. The Daladala ride was a ride of a lifetime, and all of us were packed into a small truck with open sides and our luggage on top.




The hard benches were harassing our asses throughout the 1,5 hour trip. The driver was speeding as hell as he had somebody chasing us. Some cars were trying to pass our daladala very dangerously. We were joking that there will be news in the Swedish press about 20 killed Chalmers students. Not sooo nice…



And finally, after a total of 28-hours, we arrived to the village of Paje! Despite the fact that there was no electricity on the island, or that we were sleeping in hot stuffy rooms, feeling the sand beneath our feet and gazing at the thousands of stars twinkling at us in the cloudless sky, it was no doubt we have arrived on a paradise on earth!

/Kati, Jan and Markus

To Zanzibar we go!

After more than one and a half years of hard work, we are finally going to Zanzibar! You will be able to follow us here as we will update you with pictures and news of what is happening on site. The trip will take almost 24 hours, but it will be well worth it. If you would like to know more about the Seaweed Center, please visit http://www.seaweedcenter.com/home.

Altogether we are 26 people going down there, 20 students from CSE, 2 from ICM along with the CSE school manager and a representative from the Encubator. We are told that there is currently no electricity on the island so everything is powered by generators. Hopefully the electricity will come back on soon so that we can perform all the activities we have planned for the Seaweed Center and still keep you up to date.

Through the weeks leading up to this trip, everyone has had their specific tasks to prepare activities that will take place. The first days, we will aid the working women in the village Paje to carry out their daily work activities of collecting Seaweed. We will also hold different workshops with them, from drying the seaweed more efficiently to soap machinery, packaging and sales strategy. However, it is important to remember that we are not there to teach them. From experience, it does not work very well when an outsider comes to show them how everything should be. We have at least as much to learn from them, about their culture and the art of soapmaking as they have from us. Therefore, this whole trip and all the activities and workshops will be an experience where we will all learn together.

Erik from the CSE class is alredy on site preparing for our arrival. The weather is 30-40 degrees warm with constant sun. It will be nice with a change from the unusually snowy and cold Sweden! I must now get myself to school to pack all the toys we are bringing for the children to play with at the Seaweed Center. I will leave you with a pic of the construction site as it was a week ago. Check the blog out soon again to see how everything is progressing!

/Markus