Out in a Dhow

I went out on a real life dhow, the fishing boats they have been using here on the eastern coast of Africa for hundreds of years. It was a day off and I was invited to go along with some of the other missionaries, and to top it off, one of them offered to pay for me – its about $20 per person for the day, snacks and drinks included, so that was amazing to start with!



We left at about 8am and set sail for the bay. First we went to the peninsula opposite Pemba and dived off the boat and went snorkeling, and then we headed out to the opposite side of the bay. Pemba bay is the 2nd largest natural harbor in the world, so it took quite a while to get there (by car it’s a good 4 hour drive) – but it is gorgeous, unspoiled beach. We lazed in the sun for about an hour or two until the tide had come so far in that we had to wade back out to the boat! There was a village quite close to the water and we saw some of the village girls on the beach. Their face’s were painted white, a natural beauty mask, except they have to wear it the whole time else they think they aren’t pretty!




Then they put up the sail and cut the motor, and we sailed across the water.

I lay at the edge of the boat with my hand trailing in the water - it was gorgeous. At about 3pm we had started heading back to the mainland when we all needed to pee. So they stopped the boat and we all jumped into the water and… well it was very funny ;-)

One of the missionaries has 2 dogs and they accompanied us – they had such fun in the water!