The Thing With The Cats

See, there are thousands of cats in Zanzibar. Some are fat, some near to starvation. Some have big furry tales, some are really short haired. They are black, white, black'n'white, orange, stripy, tabby, spotty, small, huge and so on.

There are also a lot of kittens. They can be anywhere – one day you just wake up and tadaa! kittens in your backyard.

One day about a month ago a somehow wise cat mom decided to bring her newly borns to our backyard. Our backyard is divided into two spaces: one used to be a garden, now it's more like a place where people dumb things they don't know a better place for. Another part is our actual used area, made out of concrete and it even has a sink. This is very typical for old Stone Town buildings, like ours. The two spaces are separated by a door.

This cat had taken her kittens to the place that used to be a garden. And through a very small hole in the door, those kittens found their way to our actual backyard. Since we one day realised this, we have been helping the mom a lot. We give food and water daily to these cuties, who still don't show too much appreciation. But just the idea of having the whole cat family there is so much fun!

This is where you should stop reading if you can't handle the bad things in life.

There was another cat, she liked to sneak in through our balcony to sleep in the third floor at nights. She was pregnant, and was probably planning to do the same trick as our foster kittens mom. But the sad thing is, when it was time for her to deliver the babies, she couldn't. She went downstairs, fell the last stairs, and died in our livingroom floor. We found her in the morning.

It felt really sad, but somehow it's good that she didn't bring another kitten family into this allready full country. The kittens don't have too good a chance of having a nice life.

Not many weeks ago we saw the most horrible looking, sick kitten. Me and my friends stopped there and discussed if we should be mercyful and just kill the kitten. We didn't do anything, besides the fact that we were all really silent for the rest of the day.

Cats in Zanzibar are in strange situation. Some people like them, many have cats at home. Some people hate them and kick them anytime they have a chance to do so. But nobody is supposed to kill them, it's not accepted in the culture.

Some time ago there was a project to sterilize the street cats. I guess it should be done again. Right now the situation is really out of control. But then again, there are very few mice or rats in Stone Town. Only those huge giant Zanzibar rats, which are actually bigger than most of the cats.

After the day I saw that half-dead kitten, I walked in Stone Town and saw a miracle! A young girl was giving milk to a cat that looked exactly like that kitten, I'm sure it was the same. It lifted it's head to drink, it was so weak it couldn't get up. But it felt so good to see that somebody cared enough to take that shabby little kitty home and feed it.

I'm worried about our little kittens. What will happen to them when we leave from the house after one month? Will they be able to survive the tough street life? Anybody wants to adopt cute kittens?

Trust me Maria, Kati and Patrik, we are trying to make the kittens street smart :)

Colors of Zanzibar

How to be an office worker in Zanzibar?

I've been writing a blog before, but never in English. So please excuse all the spelling mistakes and possible lack of artistic use of language.

The aim of this blog is to tell about the culture here in Zanzibar and also about our company. And my life, at least as much as it has anything to do with the culture or the company.

I'm writing this now in our office. It's sometimes quite difficult to take a moment to do something alone, since the work culture here seems to be more of a social kind. To compare to my work in Finland it's a bit of a cultural shock!

Our office deals with tourism, basically we are tour operators. My boyfriend is the heart of the company if you ask me, but if you ask him, he'll tell you nothing would happen without me. So we do this thing together.

And right at the moment I mention him, he storms into the office. Sweaty and busy as ever. Even though this is his home country, it seems to be a bit difficult for him to adjust to a) the weather and b) the culture. He's the kind of a person who wants to do everything effectively and in the best possible way. And trust me, in Tanzania that can give you a nervous break down!

In one years time we (him) have opened an office, made contracts with other travel companies, created all the material and activities, dealt with all the official stuff both in here and in Finland. So it's been a busy year!

But as I sit here in the office with all these workers and hang-arounds, I don't need to deal with the hurry. It seems like things get done even if I feel like I've been just gossiping and eating in the office the whole day. And of course talked with the occasional tourists who drop in.

Our office is in the tower of Old Fort in the middle of Stone Town. It's quite peaceful here, usually. Now the Sauti za Busara Festival is starting in the court yard, so the festival people are building their stages. It's all good, but it makes our office look like a part of the construction area, which doesn't really encourage people to climb up here.

The office is not completely finished yet anyway. We need some more furniture, some more paintings, and new stairs. But the tower is already looking so beautiful. And even though it always feels like nothing ever happens, it's all coming together, slowly but steadily.

Next time I'll share some cat stories.

Colors of Zanzibar