Paradise found

My version of paradise....6 p.m. warm sun about an hour from setting. The faint smell of sunscreen. Sand in your toes. Hair tossled from the breeze. Still in your bathing suit and nowhere to be but the bar for a cool crisp gin and tonic to take in the sunset. And may I remind you it is February....in zanzibar! How lucky am I right now?!?!?

We were working in Zanzibar on Thursday and Friday with the ministry of health here. Forecasting contraceptives and life-saving drugs for maternal health (to treat eclampsia and prevent or treat post-parting hemorrhage).  At around 3 p.m. on Friday my Tanzania colleague went to the airport and I went to start my mini holiday. After three weeks of work including weekends, I was in need of some r&r in a major way. Fortunately I was already on a tropical island!
I rode north out of town with my taxi driver Khamis. We rode through neighborhoods of Mtoni, Bububu and Magwapani....many tourists never see or interact in at all. Such is the story for many tropical destinations...you are picked at the airport and whisked away to your walled resort that while reality is in fact not the reality for the surrounding citizens and even hotel staff.


So here is Erin having a bit of guilt while en route to one of the most beautiful resorts I have ever seen. Situated on the west side of the island SeaCliff resort opened in September. It is so quiet here. An expansive resort....with probably only 30 people in the whole place. I needed this. Everyone needs and deserves this. Time with no work, nowhere to be, no agenda, food and drink at the ready. It has been utterly perfect.

We forget in all our running around how beautiful life and the world are. On this little bar on an extended dock I sit. Seeing the water ripple underneath me...giving my eyes the false illusion that I am floating on top, hearing the call to prayer off in the distance,...I realize that while I yearn for some things: a partner to share this moment with, a home closer to my family but somehow also close to the sea, and also a way for life to be more equitable for everyone....I know that I am lucky...for the paradise I have found here in Zanzibar is owed to many people who have supported me and my little life along the way.