This past weekend was full of rest, history, exploration, and much picture taking! We travelled via dala-dala up to Bagamoyo, about two hours up the coast from Dar. It is a famously historic town in East Africa because it was a hub for the slave trade. Traders would bring their captured slaves here before Indians and Arabic traders would sell them. So much for ‘a place to rest your soul’ for those slaves. It had much more history, too. It has the ‘Kaole Ruins,’ which are the ruins of the oldest Mosque in Eastern Africa, one that buzzed with activity during the 15th century. It was cryptic to see the overgrowth on the open stone tombs that littered the African landscape there. And cryptic to seethe immense, 500 year old Baobab tree of white that grew amongst them. I enjoyed the ruins very much. We went to them yesterday, Sunday.
On Saturday we saw lots of other history within the city limits of Bagamoyo. We saw the oldest church in Eastern Africa, built in 1873 and run at various points by the likes of Dr. Livingston, whom I need to research more about because he seems very interesting. He died of malaria, however. The goal of the church here was to abolish the East African slave trade, which they accomplished around the turn of the century, I believe. It was a very interesting history, to say the least. I am impressed by those priests and missionaries who came here with the mission in mind as they suffered with diseases like malaria.
Yep, it was a fun, relaxing weekend in many ways. I got to see the sun rise over the Indian Ocean on Sunday morning. Collect shells and I bought an ebony gift for my wonderful girlfriend, Beth, which I hope she likes! I read on the beach, with the sea opened up before me, toes immersed in the sun-bathed sand. I even ate a beef burger at a restaurant this weekend, which was a refreshing change of pace from my usual rice and beans or chips and eggs. Overall I am thankful for the weekend. Now it’s on to start another busy, class work intensive kind of week. It will be great!
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