Our after school club is called “Safari English Club” because the Swahili word “Safari” means to go on a trip. The children rarely leave their village and never visit any of Zanzibar’s historic locations, so we arrange occasional visits for them as part of our mission to broaden their education. Most recently our volunteer Viktoria arranged a visit to Changuu (known as Prison Island), a small island near Stone Town.

The island got its name as it was intended to be a prison for rebellious slaves in 1860s. The British First Minister of Zanzibar, Lloyd Mathews, built a prison there which was never used. The British were worried about disease epidemics affecting Stone Town, then East Africa's main port. So Changuu was turned into a quarantine island and the old prison was converted into a hospital. Quarantine cases (mostly yellow fever) were taken from ships and monitored on the island for before being allowed to progress with their journey.

In 1919 the British governor of Seychelles sent a gift of four Aldabra giant tortoises to Changuu. These tortoises bred quickly and by 1955 they numbered around 200 animals. However people began to steal the tortoises for sale as pets or food and their numbers dropped rapidly. Now there’s a large compound to keep them safe and the numbers are slowly recovering.

Viktoria’s time as a volunteer are coming to an end and so it seemed a good time for her to arrange a celebration for her class that they’d never forget. Here’s her report:

“I thought about buying everyone an individual gift but instead decided to plan a fun field trip. As they’re interested in animals, love swimming and playing in the water, I quickly decided to take them on a boat trip to Prison Island as it would be an adventure as well as a treat.

I arranged everything from the bus to take them to Stone Town, the boat to reach the island and food to keep them going. I didn’t want them to worry about anything on that day. With the help of the local teachers, everything worked perfectly. They arrived in Stone Town and we were off on the boat. They really enjoyed being on the sea and as soon as we reached Prison Island, some of them were in the water within seconds. But first, we wanted to go see the famous tortoises. The kids had never seen this type of animal before and they loved the chance to feed them and touch them.

After a brief walk around the island, it was BEACH TIME! We ran into the water and within moments, I had 10 of them splashing me. We all really enjoyed our time at the beach, playing fetch games and so on.

When it was time to say goodbye, they all gave me a big group hug as it was the last time we would be spending time together as my work here is coming to an end. I’m so grateful for the experience here in Zanzibar, the people I’ve met who let me into their homes like old friends, the kids who will forever hold a special place in my heart. I will for sure come back!”