TRAVELING WITH THE BIBI
AFTER THE ANTA
AROUND WITH ANNAMARIA
Advice on how to adopt a sustainable lifestyle, how to create an eco-friendly travel kit, recycling and zero waste: you can find all this on Ecowellbeing the blog where Gaia teaches us to adopt a lifestyle in harmony with the environment.
Benvenuta su Easy Travel Hosting! Ci ha affascinato tantissimo l'origine del tuo "soprannome" Bibi, che dà anche il nome al tuo blog. Ce ne potresti parlare?
First of all, thank you for this interview. My name is Annamaria Pozzobon, I am 58 years old and for several years I have lived in Africa, in Zanzibar to be precise, where I work in tourism. I have always loved Africa, traveling and writing.
Therefore, opening my own blog gave me the opportunity to combine these passions of mine. The choice of the blog was born after following a travel blogging course where Easy Travel Hosting was recommended, because it uses renewable energy and therefore helps to respect the environment.
I seized the opportunity! The name of my blog had been floating around in my head for a while.
As you may have understood, I am a woman who has passed her age, therefore much above the average travel bloggers, who are around 30/40 years old.
Here in Zanzibar where I live I am designated with the title of Bibi, which in Swahili means older woman, grandmother, woman of a certain age worthy of respect, wise.
Sometimes when they call me that I pretend to be offended, because in my heart I always feel like a girl! Here in Italy I would also be called "tardona"!
Jokes aside, the name of the blog "Traveling with the Bibi" fits me perfectly.
My idea is to write about travel, encouraging women of a certain age to leave. But I also interview women who inspire me with their art, their experiences, their culture.
And I invent interviews with women from the past who are particular and extraordinary in their own way, also trying to rehabilitate them and make them see them from a different perspective than how they have always been presented to us.
Women's stories, a very important part of your blog. You live in Africa, what is the situation of women on this continent?
Talking about the condition of women in Africa means opening an immense chapter, because each country is a cosmos in its own right.
From my experience here in Zanzibar I can say that the condition of women is not easy.
It is a very different culture from ours. Especially here in the shamba (small fishing villages immersed in the tropical forest) women take on all the domestic tasks: husband, house, many children, extended families.
They are often the only ones to provide for the family, as husbands have more than one wife, little money and many mouths to feed. It is not uncommon for women to also raise the children of relatives.
Little education, almost non-existent medical care, not very high life expectancy.
If they are not married, do not have children and a husband who supports them, they truly live on the margins of society.
In the city, women are more likely to go to school and perhaps find a job, even in the many hotels or government offices, thus contributing to family well-being.
In short, although mistreated, women are the backbone of the African family and ultimately of society.
It seems only right to ask, why Zanzibar?
I have always wanted to come to Africa since I was a child. I've always had Africa in my heart, I don't know why. Maybe I was African in another life!
I don't like the cold and winter and I'm very meteorological. So when a Tour Operator asked me to come to Zanzibar for work, I said yes without hesitation.
I subsequently found work in other hotels and for several years I have been working for an Italian company that owns various structures. I love living warm and outdoors wearing light clothes and slippers.
Here in Zanzibar the philosophy of life is polepole hakuna matata, little by little without worries. Sometimes I say too much.
In fact, while it's nice to slow down, sometimes the phlegm here is unnerving and nothing works as it should.
But are we in Africa, or not?
How is the waste disposal, recycling and pollution situation in Zanzibar?
Here a painful chapter opens as the government does little for waste disposal.
In recent years, thanks to mass tourism, waste production has increased exponentially. With open-air landfills and a bit of waste’ everywhere.
Fortunately, there is a private company that does separate waste collection in hotels, which we also use.
Since this is an expensive thing, many hoteliers prefer to pretend nothing has happened and throw the garbage in illegal landfills.
It's really a shame.
Since last year, many facilities here in Jambiani have been paying people to keep clean what is one of the longest beaches in Zanzibar with its 6 kilometers. You can see the difference!
Then there are NGOs that, for example, recycle glass, transforming it into very nice furnishing objects, also employing disabled people.
And a private company that has started recycling PET plastic by transforming it into tables, vases, watches, key rings and Christmas trees.
What everyone should do, locals and expats, is to be educated to respect this beautiful island we call home, reducing waste and pollution!
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Annamaria so much for showing us her Africa.
If you want to find out more, you can follow her on her website by clicking here.
And on social media too!
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