It’s usually the grim things in life that make you sit up and start thinking about your own life. You might have heard on the news of the passenger ferry capsizing off Zanzibar. It happened just off the coast of Unguja (Zanzibar is an archipelago consisting of two main islands Unguja and Pemba), practically in front of us, next to a smaller island called Chumbe. We don’t know the full details but it was one of the older passenger ferries that probably didn’t comply with whatever safety standards are in place to prevent such things. Probably had too many people on board most of whom wouldn’t be able to swim. Probably with a crew who weren’t trained for such scenarios. A rough sea would have done the rest.

All things here seem to be forever on the verge of a break down, whether it be your cooker or fridge or the local daladala buses or boats that ply the straights between Zanzibar and the mainland. Electric shocks, sparks from appliances, the collapsing of buses in clouds of black smoke are common place events. It creates a latent suspicion even fear of anything mechanical. It’s a fear and edginess that grows with the size of the object. We had an example of it recently, a daladala we were on ground out its last gear and rumbled to a halt. Daladalas are small and open. No more than twenty people on board. They normally take seconds to fill up with or disembark passengers. There was a faint whiff of petrol and fumes. A bit of smoke, and suddenly a mass explosion of people fighting and scrambling to get to the door (3 feet away). Instant jam, with shouting, flying fists and crying children. It was a bit of an eye opener for me. It’s not hard to imagine what would follow on a boat with almost 300+ people and exits, probably blocked with baggage, tens of metres away.

A similar disaster happened last year, between the straights of Unguja and Pemba. A ferry loaded with over 1000 people. Over 400 died. It was incorrectly reported in the western press as only 200 deaths on a ferry of 400, buried somewhere down in the pages. As far as I’m aware this capsizing hasn’t been reported on the BBC international channel news and its nowhere to be seen in the online tabloid editions such as the Guardian. It seems that in this part of the world only deaths of biblical proportions capture the front page imagination of the western press. But here isn’t the place to go off on a rant about western perspectives on the value of non-western life.

Survivors and bodies are being sent to the local hospital up the road from us. The college stopped all classes and sent all of the students there yesterday afternoon to see if they could be of assistance. We’ll find out this morning a few more details of what’s going on. We’ve been to the local hospital a couple of times. You don’t want to know. Don’t think medical facilities, cupboards stocked with medicine and the like. The place still lacks clean sheets, mosquito netting, chairs, glass in windows. It’s not a place to be sent to with anything major.

So, not a happy blog but it’s got us reflecting again on how lucky we are to be healthy and safe and with the options and opportunities most people here and elsewhere can’t even begin to dream of.