Prince William ashauriwa kwenda honeymoon yake Zanzibar...

Zanzibar's New Star of the East Hotel Is Fit for a Royal Honeymoon

While Prince Wills and Princess-to-be Kate Middleton are rumored to be spending their honeymoon in Isles of Scilly, we can't help thinking the royal couple should maybe pull a switcheroo and shack up at the newly opened Star of the East on Zanzibar.

The Tanzania hotel would provide a paparazzi-free zone. It only offers 11 villas, and each has its own private plunge pool, Jacuzzi, personal butler, ginormous furnished terrace and lush garden full vegetation, from which the newlyweds will be able to watch the sunset and get all romantic.

Plus, the all-inclusive hotel offers a private beach where the couple can frolic without getting bothered by stalker fans. Though we think we could spend the entire time chillaxing in the terrace (see picture). And though it's a small, exclusive resort, there's a spa, the Mvua African Rain Spa, where the lovebirds can get some post-nuptial pampering.

The villas, two of which are two-bedroom spaces, have a traditional hut shape with retaining walls made of local stone and coral rock. They also are eco-friendly, sporting solar panels and using an irrigation system where outgoing water is used to irrigate the gardens instead of wasted.

Rooms start at around 635 Euros, or $868 a night. A two-week stay there would definitely require a royal-sized budget.


Hotelchatter

Mchungaji wa Kimarekani wa Kanisa la Anglikan kwenda Zanzibar

The Rev. Jerry Kramer, the Episcopal priest who threw his church into the recovery of Broadmoor after Hurricane Katrina, has left the church for a more conservative Anglican community.

Kramer, the former rector of the Free Church of the Annunciation, said by e-mail he now is affiliated with the Anglican Church in North America.

That community is composed of former Episcopalians who split with the U.S. church in 2008 over deep theological differences.

Kramer is now a member of an Anglican community in New Braunfels, Texas, with his wife and three children.

He said he is awaiting training before moving to Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania in east Africa, to do missionary work in a predominantly Muslim region.

Kramer left New Orleans in 2009 on a medical disability. He said he was physically and psychologically exhausted, suffering from difficult-to-manage diabetes, heart and liver problems.

After Katrina ruined his church, Kramer and his congregation put off rebuilding.

Instead, they opened the campus to the needs of Broadmoor residents, who received food, washed their clothes, got health care and used trailers on the site to house the offices of the Broadmoor Improvement Association, which planned the recovery of the devastated neighborhood.

Kramer's gifts fit the moment. Hyperactive and inventive, he spun off ministries and blew up established conventions in pursuing the work, almost erasing the distinctions between the church and the surrounding community.

In other ways, however, he was deeply orthodox.

He was increasingly ill at ease with changes in the Episcopal church's theology, particularly what critics saw as its diminution of the authority of Scripture and its increasing openness to faithful, same-sex relationships.

Those were the changes that caused the rift between the Episcopal church and those who left to form the Anglican Church in North America. That body, which says it has 100,000 members in nearly 1,000 congregations, now seeks to become a recognized member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

From Texas, Kramer said the Epsicopal church "simply no longer believes what Christian have always believed."

He said the Anglican community he is now affiliated with "is in the process of replacing (the Episcopal Church) as the authentic expression of Anglicanism in the Americas."

Kramer said his Type 2 diabetes is now "completely cured," and he is medically cleared to resume work.


nola.com

Washington state sells 2 ferries to Tanzania

The state finally has sold two of its discarded passenger-only ferries, the Kalama and the Skagit, to the African nation Tanzania.

The ferries have been docked and inactive since September 2009. The Legislature ordered the state to get out of the passenger-only ferry business in '06.

The two ferries had been sold to a boat broker in Port Coquitlam, B.C., which sold them to Tanzania. They will be put in service between the mainland of Tanzania and the Zanzibar archipelago. They were sold for $400,000 combined, far below the $900,000 value the state said they were worth in December 2009.

Marta Coursey, spokeswoman for Washington State Ferries, said the two boats will be taken to Africa by cargo ship.

The state had hoped to sell the two 112-foot boats locally, but when that failed, it placed them for auction on eBay, asking $300,000 each, with no success. The ferries were built in New Orleans and purchased in 1989 for $5 million.

Ferry historian Steve Pickens said the Kalama and the Skagit were the first two passenger-only boats the state built. They were supposed to go into service in 1989 but were tied up because there was no money to run them. Following the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, the two vessels were sent to San Francisco and served commuters crossing the bay while the city's bridges were repaired.


TST

Mkurugenzi wa Manispaa ya Zanzibar Amwagiwa Tindikali...

Mkurugenzi wa Manispaa Zanzibar Nd.Rashid Ali Juma amwagiwa tindikali na watu wasiojulikana, hali yake ni mbaya sana.

Tukio la kuwagiwa tindikali linahusishwa sana na uwamuzi wa SMZ kuondoa makontena katika eneo la darajani ili kupisha utengenezaji wa bustani.

Aidha kuwekuwepo na vitendo vingi vya kujichukulia sheria mikononi visiwani humo tokea kuanza kwa mwaka huu, ambapo baa kadhaa zilichomwa moto na watu wasiojulikana.