Public Transportation

10/23/05

Okay, I'm back. Not dead. Alive and well. I spent yesterday just trying to unpack and recover from vacation, which was a blast. I was very grateful for the chance to see more of Africa than the footpaths in Kanga.

I jumped a bus coming back; it was scheduled to leave Moshi (Tanzania) around 1:30pm. Sometime after 2pm the bus arrived, packed, I got on in the sweltering heat but there were no seats, I stood to Arusha, where we changed buses (someone tapped me on the shoulder and pointed and said, "that's your bus now.") Then it was seven hours or so to Nairobbery, but first the border crossing, in the pouring rain, where of course the clerk tried to make me fork over an extra $50 for a new Kenyan visa even though my $100 multiple entry six month business visa is still valid (I mean, do these guys make a commission? It's happened all three times that I entered Kenya.) Lots of Massai trying to sell their beads, lots of guys trying to change your money at terrible rates. On the way to Tanzania, at the same border crossing, I almost got robbed I think, there's not like instructions when you get to the border, everyone just sort of jumps off the bus, and I do my best to follow, do what they do, pretend like I know what I'm doing… So after I had got my exit stamp from Kenya and was walking (I presumed) to the entry point for Tanzania, I was stopped by an official looking guy, who said "Akamba?" Which is the name of the bus company, so I said "Yes" and he said "You need visa?" and I said "Yes" and so he started trying to get me to come get my visa in some little shop off to the side. I even started following him, he just looked official, and all of a sudden I saw that he was leading me to a shack down an alley where three guys were waiting with this greedy look in their eyes… So I turned around. Then the guy starts shouting, "You can't go that way! You need visa! You'll be arrested!" But I pushed on. It turns out the actual immigration office was another 200 yards up or so… I don't want to imagine what sort of transactions takes place in that little shed in the alley. Anyway, the Moshi bus was easy, then there was the joy of transferring in Nairobi, with a half hour lay over, just enough time to try and grab some dinner but feel like I was going to miss the connection the whole time (I figured if ever a bus in Africa took off on time, it would be while I was eating chips and sausage.) But I got on the bus, which I dubbed the 'Midnight Hijack Express' because the same bus on the same route was hijacked a month before. The bandits took everything and left the passengers naked, lying in the bush. I've been informed that generally, the driver and conductor are in on such operations… But again, no hijackings. The bus was fast (these guys drive like maniacs when they think everyone's asleep – on the way to Nairobi from the village, 3 weeks earlier, the bus was only half full, so at Kericho they made us get off and join another a bus. An old lady was struggling to get this big bag of flour or maize meal or something down, I stopped and got it for her, walked it over to the other bus, we got on, me struggling under the weight of my bag and hers, we were the last to people on, the bus was full, there were only seats in the back row. I walked down the aisle of the sleeping bus, finally got to the back, put her bag up, mine wouldn't fit it would have to sit next to me, I ended up in the very back corner, the worse seat in the house because it doesn't recline, though the seat in front of it does, it's the bumpiest, and it doesn't have a seatbelt. I managed to fall asleep after a while, and when I awoke, I wasn't touching the ground. I though, 'well this is odd. I'm not touching the ground.' And then SLAM, back into my seat, my spine compressing. We had his a big bump and I had literally gone airborne in my slumber. Shortly afterwards two young boys had got on the bus, they were maybe 12 or 13, and one was selling bananas, the other roast maize. It was well after midnight, they were bundled against the cold, no one was buying, it made me sad.) We got to Kisii at 5am, and I was about to get off the bus, but the station was closed, it was still pitch black, there were people wandering around everywhere, there didn't seem to be any Matatus running… it didn't look appetizing. So I asked the bus driver if he was going to Rongo and he said yes, so I asked if he would drop me off in Kanga and he said he would, as long as I could call the stop… And this time it was easy, once we past Rongo I went up to the front by the driver, it was still dark out, everyone on the bus was still asleep, I went up and stood in the front and showed him where to stop, and got my luggage and walked to Mama Liz's and the gate was unlocked, I don't know if the message that I was coming home had reached them or if they just forgot to lock the gate, but I unlocked my simba and everything was just how I left it, and I started to unpack as the sun started to rise, and then realized how tired I was, and tried to lay down for a minute, but then Othies was at my door, and then I was back to sleep, and then Daniel was at the door ("Did you bring me batteries?") and then I was back to sleep, and then Mama was at the door with a hug and I finally just decided that I would give up trying to sleep, I got up and ate and started trying to put this world back in order. I am glad to be back.

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