History 2

Zanzibar, part of the Republic of Tanzania, had been recommended to Pat as a possible destination by Peter Atkinson, one of her colleagues. Since we still had another eleven nights in Africa and because our Kenya experience was turning out to be quite a letdown, we decided to take the short one hour flight from Mombasa to Zanzibar, hoping to find that "peaceful easy feeling".

Arriving in Zanzibar felt like a breath of fresh mountain air. There were smiling faces everywhere and our own faces soon started to ache from all the laughter. We spent a couple of days in the main town and then after being touted by a chap from one of the tourist establishments, we headed for the village of Jambiani on the east coast and the beaches we had heard so much about.

In those days the trip out to Jambiani took longer than two hours as much of the road was unfinished and quite rough. However, we soon forgot the bumps and jolts as the refreshing sea breezes whisked away the heat and we rolled into Jambiani with a renewed sense of excitement for this part of our journey. We settled into our simple but comfortable accommodations and quickly felt the tension dissolve as we adjusted our frequencies to the local station.

It took no time at all before we started to meet the locals and in particular, Pat met a member of the local Jambiani Community Development Committee. He had been a teacher and was naturally very interested in Pat and the fact that she was a teacher as well, a most respected position in the Swahili culture. We were invited to see the local school, which was most interesting and we also met some of the other teachers and many of the students.

Eventually, the conversation came around to me and my occupation. As there are no Chiropractors on Zanzibar it was quite difficult to explain what I did. They understood my professional designation as Doctor though, and I became quite a hit rather quickly.

We decided that instead of trying to explain what I did as a Chiropractor, it might be easier to show them. With that in mind, we invited members of the community who were interested in experiencing a Chiropractic assessment and treatment to come to a makeshift clinic that we would operate out of one of the local hotels. Saturday morning arrived and with it a line up of some 30 to 40 patients who had the courage to offer themselves up to this stranger for treatment.

That first day was to be the first of three equally busy sessions and eventually an invitation from the Jambiani Community Development Committee to stay in their community to provide ongoing care to their friends and family was offered to us.

We were very touched by this request, but as we had further travel plans and a life waiting for us back in Canada we had to decline. However, we did suggest that we would try to see if there was a way to return one day to pick up from where we had left off.

We left Zanzibar with fond memories and a feeling in our hearts that is hard to explain. There was certainly an obvious need for the type of care that we were able to provide but there was as well an awareness that this place held something very special for us. The nature of this something would slowly reveal itself to us over the ensuing months that intervened between our next visit to Zanzibar.

History
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