Every day's pictures

Today it’s Sunday.

I’m writing from the terrace in front of the dive center (this is not a very good idea. I cannot see anything because of the sun!).

Not a noise in the air except for the songs that come from the religious ceremony going on somewhere in the vicinity (it’s very long… they’ve been singing all morning).

The sea is as flat as oil and the colors give the impression that the very small boats (they call them “dhows”) and the islands around are floating in between sky and earth.

Strange feeling of stopped clocks, suspended noises.

But it’s not always like this.

We just spent 3 weeks waiting for this transaction to be done (basically we’ve been waiting for 10 days now that Denis’ bank transferred the money from his account to the actual owners’ one!) and I had more than enough time to study the activity going on this little piece of beach down from our place..

A quick explanation on the situation : since they do not get all their money on their accounts, the actual owners of the dive shop won’t give us the car we need to bring the boats to the water neither the keys of the boats. We’re stuck and say no to our first clients! Shitty situation!!!

Anyway, if everything goes well with these stupid banks, all the money should be transferred by Tuesday and we’ll finally start operating on Wednesday!

Let’s come back to this little piece of beach…

You first have to imagine a beach living at the rhythm of very big tides. The landscape changes from minute to minute depending on the tide and the lights.

Sometimes, the sea goes so far you have the impression you could walk straight to the islands (that are 45 minutes away with a speed boat). Sometimes it is to high that the mats of the dhows are almost in our garden.

Dhows are very small boats that look like a nut shell with a nice sail at the front that can be quite colorful. Dhows go in & out all day long. They are used for fishing and every afternoon they leave on the beach what they fished during the day a few meters down from our house in a kind of a big fish market. They are also used as game fields by kids. And finally, they’re used to “carry” people from one place to the other, as “sea busses”.

And, as for the other “inland” busses, the “driver” waits until it is totally packed with people before leaving.

It’s really amazing to see those nut shells, lying on the beach at low tide welcoming more and more people on board during 3-4 hours, the time for the tide to come back in and give them the opportunity to sail away. And during these 3-4 hours it’s a non stop going back and forward of people carrying every kind of things on their heads, no matter the size and joining those who’ve already been waiting the departure time, for hours under the sun.

Also, on our little piece of beach, this morning it was the funny show of 5 kids bathing an enormous pig.

And this little piece of beach is also a perfect theatre for wonderful sunrises (we’re on the east side of Africa, so long for the sunsets!) and stunning moon light shows. Yesterday night for example, around 1am, there was a huge orange crescent of moon lying horizontally on the sea, only light in a very black night.

Do you feel a little bit as if you were there?

And while waiting to start operating, what do we do?

We empty the pool of its stagnant waters and clean it (look at me, I think I’m better than Kate Moss lookwise… see the booties!!).

We garden… and we try to learn a few words of Portuguese thanks to an I-Pod very elegantly put in the laces of the swim suit….

So chic!!!