Kendwa beach

We set off from Roma Fiumicino with a Meridiana Fly flight and stayed at the Kendwa Eden Beach resort. We spent a wonderful week thanks to the human warmth and friendliness of the beach boys and of all the Africans. The village is very nice and clean, the food is excellent and the stay is pleasant. The very white beach offers postcard landscapes and dreamy sunsets. We visited, together with the beach boys, the city of Stone Town where we visited the market, Freddy Mercury's birthplace, the square where the slave market was, the sultan's palace, the Arab fortress and the port. We went to Prison Island to see what had been created as a prison for slaves and fortunately never used for this purpose, where now there is a breeding farm of giant tortoises. We spent half a day at Nakupenda, a strip of sand in the middle of the ocean, which appears and disappears with the tides.

Here we went snorkelling and then ate an excellent grill of lobsters and cicadas. On another excursion we visited the spice plantations and discovered that all the spices we use in cooking are not born in jars at the supermarket, but are produced on this wonderful island. Another excursion we did was to the Jozani Forest to see the monkeys and then we spent half a day among the dolphins. All these excursions we did with the beach boys and we spent very few dollars. From Italy we had brought pens, notebooks, T-shirts, knickers, soft toys and also sweets which we distributed to all the children we met in the various villages we passed through. During one of our excursions, I asked the driver to stop in front of any school and I cannot tell you the happiness of those children who received small gifts from us, gifts they absolutely did not expect.

I would like to say a few more words about the beach boys, they are wonderful people, who to make a living sell objects and services on the beaches. At first they can seem annoying, but already on the second day you start to get to know them better and you learn to appreciate them and respect them for their choice of life which is very hard, but which they face with so much desire to live and to learn. All of them speak Italian perfectly and in many cases they speak it better than we do. Talk to them, have them tell you about their experience, their ups and downs and you will realise that they have little, indeed sometimes nothing, yet they are happy. We have a lot, but we are not serene. I came back with great life lessons. Thank you Africa and thank you Africans.