The Comoros are, in Fact, All That and a Bag of Chips

The Comoros Islands are awesome.

Ok, well truthfully I can't attest to all of the islands, but Grand Comore is amazing.

This is the first Islamic state we've visited on our trip, and truth be told, I was bowled over by the beauty of this place and the people. While this could be because I was still recovering from the spider hive known as Madagascar, in truth I feel it was due to the fact that everyone was very friendly and made an effort to understand David and my massacring of the french language.

We stayed in Moroni, which is the capital of the Comoros. The town was covered in concrete houses and framed amongst countless palm trees.

After arriving at the Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport, we lodged at the Los Arcades Hotel, which was comfortable hotel right on the coast. The hotel itself was hilarious. We ended up switching rooms 3 times because the A/C kept breaking. The first night we stayed in the "Executive Suite" which had an automatic sink which wouldn't work half the time because of the power outages, and a huge refrigerator that wouldn't plug into the wall because it was from Asia and the plugs didn't match up.

During our first full day, we explored Moroni. The vendors were friendly, and didn't push their goods quite as much as Madagascar's. At some point David made friends with the assistant curator at the national museum, who was very friendly. Upon discovering our interest in Islam, he had us follow him through this labyrinth of vendors to the alMa ruf Mosque. We were let inside (I was wearing a headscarf) and led to a shrine devoted to Muhammmad Ahmad, who allegedly brought Shadhiliyya to the Comoros, so the observers are Sufi. Please forgive spelling errors. David wrote out all of the names, but reading his writing is like reading french. Painful. :P

It was my first time inside a mosque, and I was very interested to see how David and I would be received- it was interesting because the men didn't really care too much, but the women gave me their greatest death glares possible. David later on said that the shrine we visited is patronized by single people seeking husbands, especially on the day we visited, which happened to be the anniversary of Ahmad's death. Which means that the women could have viewed me as competition, hence the "I hope a thousand emus devour your liver" looks. But the head of the mosque was very nice- they gave us two baggies of food when we left.

We continued to wander around town a bit more, but eventually went back. Unfortunately, as most of you know at this point, I got Malaria (we counted back the days and surprise surprise it was from a Madagascar mosquito) and didn't get too much of a chance to see the rest of town as I was bedridden and on an 8 pill a day regiment.

But on the bright side getting Malaria caused me to really fall in love with the people of the Comoros- once the owner of the hotel found out I was sick, she and her sister insisted on taking care of me. They sent us oranges (they kept going on and on about the importance of Vitamin C), and when I had to get my blood test, they drove David and I to the hospital, stopping at their house to run inside and grab several of their sweaters to keep me warm as my body temperature plummeted. When we got to the hospital, David had to fight with them to be able to pay the bill! They even tried to pay for my blood test! Again, these are complete strangers, and we were literally the only Christians on a Muslim island.

Side note- my Malaria is cured- the meds work really fast.

I really can't say enough positive things about the Comoros- I wish we'd had more time there. But alas, the trip must go on, and now we're off to Zimbabwe!