Sadly the two month long vacay had to finally come to an end and on Sunday I had to make my way back to the village. Of course the trip did not go how it was supposed to. We were originally planning to leave on Saturday but when we went to the bus station we found out that literally every bus was full because all of the students were heading back to school so we had to postpone the bus until Sunday and even then the only ticket we could get was un an ultra SKANK bus called the Princes Muro (princess with one s, it should have been a dead give away that things were going to be rough) this bus was one of the fun ones that had three seats on one side and two on the other, and adding to the fun all of the window seats were taken so Nicole and I had to take aisle seats which on Tanzanian busses is the worst because you are constantly getting hit by everyone who walks by.
We called our taxi driver friend to come get us the next morning the bus left at 6 and reporting time was 5:30 so we figured we would leave at 4:45, the driver had other ideas he insisted we leave at 4:15 in case there was traffic. Of course there wasn’t any traffic and we arrived at the bus station at 4:45. The bus station in Dar is the biggest bus station in East Africa and is also super sketch and seedy so being two white girls with a lot of luggage was not going to bode well for us. After fending off the touts and crazy drunk guys for an hour we finally got on the bus and settled in for what was going to be a long ride. Things were going as well as the possibly could they were actually showing something on the tv (American music videos which were all super old and awesome). Until we were half way into the trip and all the sudden the bus pulled over and everyone started pushing and screaming to get off the bus. I have never been in a stampede or a mob situation but I imagine this was the closest I will get. People were pushing and shoving to get off the bus a kid almost got trampled people were jumping out the windows, all the while I was still confused as to what was going on. I got up and got off completely baffled, when I got off I saw that the bus was smoking pretty bad and realized it was just overheating which was NBD. The other thing I also realized was my phone was gone. i got back on the bus and began searching but could not find it, then I started looking outside and still got nothing. Of course we were in an area that did not have any network so calling it was not an option. Needless to say I was a little pissed the rest of the trip because my phone and all my contacts were gone.
We finally arrived in Mbeya and actually made good time getting there and it was still light out when we arrived, we checked into the hotel, had dinner then watched Discovery channel and MTV for the last time. The next morning I found out that my roommate had gotten us a ride with one of the doctors in town and after visiting the Vodacom store we were going to leave. It was a good thing we found him because later that day we found out that the bus we were going to take had gotten into a wreck that morning leaving the village because the roads are so incredibly bad because of the rain. Needless to say the ride back was a rough one and the doctor thought it was a good idea to let my roommate drive the last stretch of hte trip which also happens to be when we had to wind down this massive mountain, I dont think I exhaled for 45 minutes or let go of hte seat in front of me. I now know how my mom feels when dad is driving in the snow.
This brings me to another fun part of being back in the village, I really didn’t think much about the rainy season because I mean really how bad could rain be? I was so wrong when it rains here it is pouring and the mud is so bad that you just slip around and can barely make it a few feet. They also told us that this rain now isn’t event that bad compared to what will happen in march when apparently the entire road will be washed away… I cant wait !!! to be stuck here for the next 3 months. The plus side is I will save money the down side is I wont have electricity/ fast internet/ I have never spent more that two consecutive weekends in the village I will probs go crazy. I guess this is a good time to pick up a hobby if you have any suggestions please send them my way because I am interested in anything.
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