Tennis on my mind...

It’s June 8^th, and my ‘boyfriend’ is playing tennis today, as he does most days in June. After a few days of taking over the telly at home in Nairobi to watch the French Open (much to my niece and nephew’s dismay…I got away with it by telling them I hadn’t watched TV in two years!! – the looks on their faces were priceless) I’d put tennis out of my mind for a bit – partly due to excitement about finally being in Zanzibar and all.

Stephanie got up early and went for a run; I figured I’d laze around/lay in bed for a bit until she got back, until I lazily checked my phone with half an eye open. Lo and behold, emails had downloaded sometime in the middle of the night (cell phone/Internet service is spotty to non-existent in Stone Town), and an email from my friend Julie with the subject, “Can you…” caught my eye. I clicked on it and miraculously, the rest of the email appeared, “…watch tennis in Zanzibar?????????” I wish those of you who think I’m not a morning person could have seen me then!! Forget that Steph had told me what time she’d be back (important because we were sharing a single key at the time)…I bolted up out of bed and was at the beach (teeth brushed and all) in no more than 7 minutes flat! Yes, I know you’re wondering…what in the world does the beach have to do with tennis?!? It’s the closest we can go and pick up a cell phone signal, i.e. connect to the outside world. I checked tennis news and scores and realized I had to find some place to watch my boy…PRONTO!!

Many emails, lots of walking around, and several questions to random strangers later, I did find out about a sports bar where I could watch tennis the French Open men’s tennis final; it was a short (5-10 minute) dala dala (known as a matatu in Kenya) ride out of Stone Town, definitely worth it – for me anyway…plus we got to experience public transportation…fun! NOT. The three of us made the most of the excursion by visiting ruins of a nearby palace; at least this way, I had a little less guilt at dragging my non-drinking, non-tennis watching friends to a bar to watch two guys hit a tennis ball across a net for anywhere from 2-5 hours! Rafa won; it was totally worth it…dala dala ride and all.