A long lost post

Here is a posting I found in my documents that I had written as I was leaving Zambia. It is just two little fun stories about our travels from the border and another little silly mishap. I hope you enjoy. It was a good laugh for me to be able to go back and remember...

A few short stories before I tell you about the amazing time I am having here. Our trip from Kenya to Tanzania was probably the craziest experience I have had yet. We had purchased a bus ticket for travel from Mombasa, Kenya to Moshi, Tanzania. It was supposed to go from Mombasa and then stop at the boarder, where we would be escorted to get our visa and taken to another bus that would take us on to Moshi. Well, not only was the bus a few decades old, but a few hours into the trip (which took about 12 hours) the conductor started bringing more people onto the bus. Filling it up way past capacity and people standing in the aisle. Kristina had someone's back in her arm a good portion of the way and then a little girl was sitting on someone's lap behind us and playing with our hair. She was mesmerized with the Muzungu's hair. Well we finally got to the boarder only to have one man sweep us away, telling us to hurry and follow him. Next thing you know we are both on the back of a motorcycle going extremely fast down a long dirt road. I think we both almost flew off a few times, and don't forget we have our huge (well mine is huge) backpacks on our back and I have a small pack on my chest and this guy is flooring it down this bumpy dirt road. All I could think was, "if my Dad saw me right now, he'd kill me!". We finally made it to the visa office, only for me to get off on the wrong side of the motorcycle and burn my calf against the muffler. Well, at least I will have a nice big scar to remind me of Africa. After we get our Visas, the guy shows us our bus and we get on. We were so happy because there was so much room, no one was on the bus, so we both took a row and got comfy. Well, the bus starts and moves ahead about a half mile past the visa office and then stops and suddenly this huge group of people come rushing the bus, all trying to get on at once. People were telling us we were in THEIR seats, seats we thought we PAID for. We both refused to move because we paid for the ticket and really wanted to get to Moshi and had no other way to get there. Well, I end up getting a child thrown onto my lap and people are still standing in the aisles and we continue on until we get pulled over just past the boarder by the Tanzanian Police. Some kid basically yelled at me to get out of his seat and as I stood up the policeman says to me, "get off the bus". I was just like, "huh"? And I turn to Kristina and I said, "if Im getting off, your getting off.... so get up!"

We both are standing with a few other people on the side of the road with our bags, looking at the cop. And he says, you will get on that bus, pointing to the already crowded "matatu" (one of the public transport vans I have told you about before). There was a man standing on the road with us that was nice enough to help us and make sure we were ok. He ended up talking us into to going to Arusha, another town just past Moshi, and taking a safari. I don't know how he did it, but we agreed, and he actually helped out a lot. He got us a room at a backpackers hostel and gave us a ride from the bus stop to the hostel and just made sure we were taken care of. Well, mostly. Turns out the safari we were SO excited about, (it was at one of the best national parks in Tanzania, The Ngorongoro Crater) was booked! So we ended up agreeing to have a different safari guide take us on a small safari at the Arusha National Park. It was nice and we got super close to a few Giraffes, but it was no Ngorongoro! It was a crazy experience and we made sure to pay a little more to take a "luxury-express" bus to Dar es Salaam.

The other story I forgot to mention on my last blog was my soap story. When we were in Kisumu, Kenya at my friend Andrew's parent's home, I was taking a bucket bath in their bathroom. The bathroom is just a hole in the ground toilet (but nice) and you bucket bath in there so that the water goes down the hole. Well, I was using their soap and it slipped out of my hands and before I could grab it, it just b-lined right down the hole. It was one of those moments where you are just stunned and don't know what to do. All I know is that I am so happy that no one was able to catch me in that moment. After the shock wore off, it was really funny, but I had to go tell his mom that I lost their bar of soap down the latrine hole! She was really sweet about it, but I still felt bad.

Life in Africa, you never know WHAT is going to happen next! I miss it more than you know.