The Palace and the Pilauf

I'm having such a good time. I'm staying at the Florida guesthouse in Stonetown. Today I walked around and photographed the Sultan's palace that is now a sad sad museum. There are some priceless works of art in there and omani carpets that are rotting away in the humidity. But there is something to be said for the fact that they let you wander around unacommpanied. I spent hours taking pictures through the lattice work of the stairs. The intricate carving of the wooden furniture, doors, and windows is one of the things Zanzibar is famous for. When I see the detail I can't help but wonder how long it took men to make. Did someone sit there for years carving one ebony chair?

My new cell phone number is 0787155884 of course you have to dial 011. So you can contact me any time if you need to or just want to cause in Africa recieving calls is free! I met a christian lady today at the sultan's palace. She told me that her church has the only english service she knows of. Its real early in the morning but I'll probably give it a try. She's going to meet me at the Dala Dala (minibus) station her name is Selona. So that should be interesting. I also got to share some pilauf with an old man today who begged me to buy him some food. I felt bad for him because I'd just watched him get hit by a car. The roads here are very narrow. He got back up unscathed, but I realized when he was eating and trying to hold his spoon he has some sort of muscular disease. He was shaking and couldn't keep a grip on his spoon. I know I can't feed everyone who holds out their hand when I walk by but this man had tears in his eyes when he said thank you and I got to tell him Jesus loves him so that was the highlight of my day.

I'm itching like crazy though. I keep waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Jetlag I guess, but everytime I go from the mosquito net to the toilet and back I swear I get 10 new bites.