June 5th, 2010
Well after 18 hours on a jam packed bus, bathroom breaks on the side of the road in the middle of an African dessert, a dead goat and absolutely NO leg room we finally made it to Arusha! We left Mwanza at 6am Saturday morning. The bus depot was packed at this hour and quite intimidating. This was the first time that I felt a little uncomfortable as it was still dark at 5am and there were people everywhere trying to get you to buy something for the trip. It was here that we had heard horror stories of theft and lost luggage. Once settled on the bus, however, all was good. Well for the most part...
The bus trip to Arusha should take about 11 hours on the very best of days, 12 hours usually. We got settled in our seats; jam packed with our backpacks under our feet, worried that our valuables would be stolen. The bus left the depot and we were off. For about the first hour the road was great, slightly bumpy but not bad at all. Then the road went from ok, to pretty bad, to absolutely TERRIBLE in a matter of minutes. We lost any sign of pavement, gravel, or any structured road for that matter and found insanely bumpy craters that created some sort of path that buses chose to drive on. It was wild. Now normally holes that size would not even be attempted to be driven on in Canada, but rather we would take pictures assuming they were beautiful craters belonging to a national park. In Africa, however, that did not stop the bus driver or change the speed. Apparently animals don’t stop them either. About half way through the journey the bus ran right over a goat that didn’t get out of the way quick enough. The sun was setting and we were getting closer to our final destination. As we passed a sign reading “Arusha 40km” our bus made some awful noise, stopped and we were stranded.
The sun went down and we were deserted in pitch black darkness literally in the middle of an African desert. As our driver attempted to fix whatever the problem was the night air became cool. About three hours later another bus FINALLY showed up to pick up the deserted passengers, we were saved. We made it into Arusha about an hour later, arriving around 1:00am. Thankfully we had someone waiting for us at the bus station who took us to our home-stay where we will be living for the rest of the summer.
We arrived and were greeted by an absolutely lovely woman, Mama Setlla, and her daughter who had prepared some food and tea for us. The food was delicious but she had made too much and we were expected to eat it all. This was going to be a challenge – we both have small appetites but it is rude not to eat everything you are served. We managed to get it all down and we showered (or should I say used buckets of cool water to wash) and went to bed. As we put our heads down on the pillow we both were nervous about our new living arrangements. We had been spoiled in Mwanza and had high expectations. We were now in a home living with a family, in a traditional African village, with no running water and expectations for us to eat copious amounts of food. We decided we would go to sleep and re-evaluate in the morning.
We woke up this morning and were greeted with, of course, a massive breakfast of fried pastry. Again, delicious, but after being insisted to eat ALL of them my stomach was not at its prime. The problem too, is not just the amounts, but the fried consistency of most ALL foods here. We dressed and decided we would venture into town and explore a little. Town turned out to be very close and we had the most lovely day just wandering around. The picture below is the Clock Tower in Central Arusha. Apparently it marks the center of East Africa. Arusha is much touristier than Mwanza and so the first thing we noticed was the amount of “Muzungus” here. We are no longer the only white people! Now, don’t get me wrong we were still singled out and haggled by every fifth person walking down the street but it wasn’t as much as a shock as it was in Mwanza. Also we found that many more of the locals spoke much more English than in Mwanza so it was much easier to carry a conversation. We stumbled across an amazing coffee shop with a great washroom (thank goodness) – you can see that my priorities have already shifted. We went to the market and bought some fruit and we found an amazing Maasai tribal market that sells the most amazing fabrics and authentic African dishes, paintings and statues. Marta and both bought matching scarves for what we thought was a steal - $10.00 each – only to find out later by a local that we were totally ripped off. We still have a few things to learn! Haha
Well after 18 hours on a jam packed bus, bathroom breaks on the side of the road in the middle of an African dessert, a dead goat and absolutely NO leg room we finally made it to Arusha! We left Mwanza at 6am Saturday morning. The bus depot was packed at this hour and quite intimidating. This was the first time that I felt a little uncomfortable as it was still dark at 5am and there were people everywhere trying to get you to buy something for the trip. It was here that we had heard horror stories of theft and lost luggage. Once settled on the bus, however, all was good. Well for the most part...
The bus trip to Arusha should take about 11 hours on the very best of days, 12 hours usually. We got settled in our seats; jam packed with our backpacks under our feet, worried that our valuables would be stolen. The bus left the depot and we were off. For about the first hour the road was great, slightly bumpy but not bad at all. Then the road went from ok, to pretty bad, to absolutely TERRIBLE in a matter of minutes. We lost any sign of pavement, gravel, or any structured road for that matter and found insanely bumpy craters that created some sort of path that buses chose to drive on. It was wild. Now normally holes that size would not even be attempted to be driven on in Canada, but rather we would take pictures assuming they were beautiful craters belonging to a national park. In Africa, however, that did not stop the bus driver or change the speed. Apparently animals don’t stop them either. About half way through the journey the bus ran right over a goat that didn’t get out of the way quick enough. The sun was setting and we were getting closer to our final destination. As we passed a sign reading “Arusha 40km” our bus made some awful noise, stopped and we were stranded.
The sun went down and we were deserted in pitch black darkness literally in the middle of an African desert. As our driver attempted to fix whatever the problem was the night air became cool. About three hours later another bus FINALLY showed up to pick up the deserted passengers, we were saved. We made it into Arusha about an hour later, arriving around 1:00am. Thankfully we had someone waiting for us at the bus station who took us to our home-stay where we will be living for the rest of the summer.
We arrived and were greeted by an absolutely lovely woman, Mama Setlla, and her daughter who had prepared some food and tea for us. The food was delicious but she had made too much and we were expected to eat it all. This was going to be a challenge – we both have small appetites but it is rude not to eat everything you are served. We managed to get it all down and we showered (or should I say used buckets of cool water to wash) and went to bed. As we put our heads down on the pillow we both were nervous about our new living arrangements. We had been spoiled in Mwanza and had high expectations. We were now in a home living with a family, in a traditional African village, with no running water and expectations for us to eat copious amounts of food. We decided we would go to sleep and re-evaluate in the morning.
We woke up this morning and were greeted with, of course, a massive breakfast of fried pastry. Again, delicious, but after being insisted to eat ALL of them my stomach was not at its prime. The problem too, is not just the amounts, but the fried consistency of most ALL foods here. We dressed and decided we would venture into town and explore a little. Town turned out to be very close and we had the most lovely day just wandering around. The picture below is the Clock Tower in Central Arusha. Apparently it marks the center of East Africa. Arusha is much touristier than Mwanza and so the first thing we noticed was the amount of “Muzungus” here. We are no longer the only white people! Now, don’t get me wrong we were still singled out and haggled by every fifth person walking down the street but it wasn’t as much as a shock as it was in Mwanza. Also we found that many more of the locals spoke much more English than in Mwanza so it was much easier to carry a conversation. We stumbled across an amazing coffee shop with a great washroom (thank goodness) – you can see that my priorities have already shifted. We went to the market and bought some fruit and we found an amazing Maasai tribal market that sells the most amazing fabrics and authentic African dishes, paintings and statues. Marta and both bought matching scarves for what we thought was a steal - $10.00 each – only to find out later by a local that we were totally ripped off. We still have a few things to learn! Haha
We spent the afternoon drafting an action plan and immediate “to do list” to get the project going and we spoke with a local who is able to get us in touch with government officials and help us with marketing the product. Things are looking very optimistic for start-up while we are here this summer and it looks like we may begin advertising as early as two weeks from now.
am so glad you are there safely and happily! Can't wait to see Arusha myself.....Love you. Please thank Stella for me.....and hi to Marta!!
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