Dharamsi arrived in Zanzibar not knowing a soul and faced with a totally alien environment. It shows the 17 year-old’s character that in no time he managed to secure employment with a trader, agreeing to work for two years at a salary the equivalent of $20 per year. His employer allowed him to sleep in the store-house on bags of cloves and he also provided him with one meal a day.Dharamsi spent the two years working hard, learning about the local economy and business practices, while also picking up the local language, Kiswahili. He took every opportunity to talk to the customers to find out about the countryside from where all the produce was coming.In 1901, when his agreement came to an end, with $40 dollars in his pocket, he decided to go to Pemba. This is where he felt his future lay.