KAMPALA, UGANDA and bus chasers

well i made it to kampala uganda, but it was a long trip. i left tabora, on dec 20th, and i boarded a bus with my friend shoghi, and 7 hours later we arrived in mwanza, it is a pretty town, in north western tanzania. we stayed the night in a nice hotel (30000 tsh for a double room) the next day we treked out into the pouring rain to see how we could catch a boat to bukoba then later catch a bus to kampala. it was pouring rain. we were soaked to the bone, but by this time all we wanted to do was get out of mwanza,

we went to the boat launch, and there were hundreds of people there, fighting for third class tickets, an armed guard forcefully was pushing people back. there were no more 2nd class tickets, and the boat that was leaving that day did not have first class.

we payed a taxi driver some money to try and take us to a bus station. he did , he actually found us a company that takes you to kampala. we were like wow, lets do it, but he mentioned we had to switchbusses in kenya. we said ok. the trip also would take 27 hours, which didnt bother us at first.

the first leg was long and the buses clutch kept grinding, so we stopped every hour or so it could cool down. we arrived at the border at around midnight, and most of you know what border towns are like so we had to be on guard. overall the border was not bad, until we got to the town where our drop off was. it was a small gas station filled with bus chasers.

Bus chasers, these are the guys that live at gas stations waiting for busses to pull in and out, so they can sell theirmerchandise to the people seated on the bus. they do this 24 hours a day, they only sleep when the alcohol they have consumed during the day or night forces them to pass out, and there were many passed out when we arived at 2 in the morning. the bus driver said your conecting bus will arrive at 5 AM. i was like what ????? so for three hours we crammed into the AKAMBA bus station/booth and tried to sleep, but everytime a bus rolled in, i could here drunk screams of hamsini (50) or mia (100) and people pretending to european footballers with empty plastic bottles.

The bus did not arrive at 5AM. it arrived after the sun rose at 7:30AM, but the good news is the rest of the trip was very uneventful, we arrived at the ugandan border by noon, and we made it into kampala at around 5:30pm, caught a taxi to the Baha'i House of Worship and thankedGod that we made it alive in one piece.

Lesson for everyone, by weary of any bustrips in Africa that take longer than 10 hours :)

First Class Train to Tabora

I sometimes dont realize how lucky i am to travel in first class, and be able to afford the luxuries that many people around the world will never be able to expierence. Well lets just say, i am not forced to travel in 3rd class like most tanzanians who need to make a 30+ hour trek across tanzania.

Sometimes I dont want to be different and want to be and do what others do around me, i dont want special treatment just because i am white. But friends i will be the first to admit, this last trip i took from Dar Es Salaam to Tabora, was long and hard, and i dont think i would have made it sitting the whole way.

We left Dar at around 5pm and suprisingly we left on time. We were heading out of Dar in all its neighborhoods, and the further we got out of dar, the more i noticed the economic difference between town and the suburbs, but the wonderful thing is, when i wave at the kids, no matter what part of dar i am in they all laugh and wave back, as if i have made their day. they scream mzungu, mzungu, and all i can do is smile back. The night is long on a train and if you dont have a bed, god bless you, because the train stops in the pitch black every 20-30 minutes, and the engine is loud, and the whistle even louder.

I am in first class, so there are only two of us in the cabin and i get a good nights sleep. I watch the sunset over the African Sky and i think wow, i wish all my friends could see this. I also dont sleep that much, because who can sleep on a train anyway, but i get up at 6 am and watch the sunrise which is just as breathtaking. in the middle of the night we broke down for a few hours, but as God would have it, i was resting comfortably in my first class cabin. We are now about 4 hours behind schedule, but i dont seem to notice as i am enjoying the beautiful scenery around me.

Well we finally arrived in a town that well what can i say, business picks up 5000% when the train pulls in, they had, meat, chicken, chips, eggs, all ready for the 100o passengers as the train takes a 30-40 minute stop. i tried goat liver and chips mayai (eggs and french fries mixed) a local delicacy here, they sell it ever. it was very very good. One of my friends from canada who was travelling with some bahais in 3rd class, got sick, and by the kindness of the man who i shared a cabin with, he joined us in 1st class for the second day of the journey. so we had some fun, chatting it up with a man from bukoba, he is very very kind. here he paid alot of money to have a first class cabin, and now he is willing to share it for more than half the trip with a complete stranger. thats how everyone is here in tanzania.

As i said the train was late, and we rolled into Tabora at around 11:30pm. I was tired, we were all tired. There was a total of 13 Baha'is travelling together to get to Tabora for the youth conference. They were all exhausted. Me and my Canadian friend Shoghi were a little rested, but all in all its an expierence that everyone should try at least once in their lives.

And remember thank god that you are one of the lucky ones, you can afford to travel in style when most of the worlds population does not have that luxury.

Till next post......... so long and God Bless