There is more to Mafia than whale sharks and snorkelling. I wanted to have a look around the island. I decided that I should walk towards Kilindoni town from the resort, a distance of a few kilometres. I set off down the beach and then entered the fishing village past long bright green fish drying racks. I couldn’t work out why there were no fish drying though. Where were all the fish?
All around me were mud huts with grass roofs, children playing in the dirt/sand, women carrying stuff on their heads and small groups of men watching tv in the shade.
I found myself walking in the village with a woman carrying a large container on her head. We ‘chatted’ and she asked me to go to her house with her. It was a small house (possibly only one room) around a central courtyard. I counted seven families living around the same courtyard. The children and adults were very curious to see this white woman in their midst.
Kids followed me and laughed and shouted ‘goodbye’ – apparently the only English word they know. I find it funny that they have not yet learnt to say ‘Hello’.
The final day of my stay I decided to get a boda boda and look around the inside of the island. A young man with good English and a motorbike was found for me by the resort staff and we set off along a rough road through forests of coconut palms and roadside huts.
I was amused when we stopped to get fuel that it was sold out of water bottles for 2,500/= per bottle. This was passes on Mafia Island as a petrol station.
When I got fed up of being thrown around and jiggled around on the rough road we headed off towards the east of the island and through a village which my driver said was his own. Plots here are very cheap – about 2m shillings and a house costs about 3m to build.
It would be lovely to build a house on Mafia Island but it’s probably one of those ideas that’s better in your imagination than in reality.