Happy late 4th of July
Summer 2007 at the Store
I hope you enjoyed all your picnics, fireworks, time on the beach, and family gatherings. This holiday is by far one of my favorites and this year I MISSED it. Last year I spent it in the Dominican Republic and this year I was in Tanzania. For the previous seven years my day normally looked the same. Early morning at the store working, serving pastries and sandwiches, catering to the vacationers who came to spend the day in my beloved state of Maine, Vacationland, parade watching, time spent on the beach, BBQ with the family, square dance in the town square, and fireworks. Well this year that was far from reality. In fact I would have CHOSEN to work on the busiest day at the store then go through what I went through this 4th of July weekend. The following can’t do this weekend justice but try to imagine anyway.
June 29
8:00 AM…..We left what had become our home for the month and our beloved friends and met up with other teams from our squad in Mukono. We planned to leave by 8:30 but if there is one thing we have learned, buses never arrive on time here. As we waited for the bus to finally arrive we grabbed one last rolex (chapati rolled with egg, tomato and sometimes cabbage) with Eddie, Michael and Harriet and anticipated our final good-bye.
10:00 AM…. Our transport finally arrived and we began our short journey to Jinja, where we spent a few days enjoying the Nile River. Some of us bungee jumped, some rafted the Nile and others just enjoyed some down time before our much dreaded travel days.
July 1
5:00 PM…..We waited for our bus to Tanzania, once again we were told it would leave at 5:00…..
6:15 PM….. We finally drive out of the parking lot. Auman and I are bus buddies again. Thank God for her, we both know the routine, plug in the I-pod, try to find a comfortable position, enjoy the landscape and try to find a happy place.
9:00 PM….. We arrive at the Uganda/Kenya border. We exit the bus, fill out a departure card (the last link to my new beloved country) get our passports stamped and walk across. We approach the Kenyan immigration office and confusion follows. Something about having to pay another $50 dollars for a visa. Cody makes it very clear that the visa we bought in late April lasts 90 days meaning we can travel through Kenya till late July. Only then do they take our passports, stamp them and let us through. You have to be forceful or else they WILL take advantage of you. At this point there are three of us teams, about 18 people. With so many people border crossings are chill, sometimes sketch but no big deal. Well this night was different. It was one of the first times that I was actually scared. We passed through the gates and were immediately swarmed by Africans asking us for money and such. I wished for nothing more than to have Michael and Eddie standing next to us preaching up a storm to all of them around. But they weren’t, we were on our own so we made our way back to the security guards and waited another hour for our bus to be cleared. We hopped back on the bus, took some Tylenol PM, and attempted to get some sleep. Ok one thing you need to know about Kenya……it has by far the WORSE roads in any of the countries I have visited so far. So combined with a lack of shocks on the buses we were like balls in a pinball machine on the entire ride. NO exaggeration.
July 2
7:30 AM…..We arrive in Nairobi and we take turns in the bathroom while the rest of us watch our bags. We quickly find our next bus and once again Auman and I find our seats, plug in the I-pods and attempt to be positive, but its getting harder. Everyone gets a little breakfast of chapati, samosa and hard-boiled eggs. Auman hates chapati so we switch, chapati for samosa….perfect! chapatis are my fav. I pass on the egg to Zeb, I know he will enjoy it far more than me.
11:00 AM….We arrive at the Kenya/Tanzania border. We fill out our departure cards once again and get our departure stamp for Kenya. THANK YOU GOD!!!! I will be happy if I never set foot back there again. It was not a favorite country of mine. We walk across to Tanzania, Cody hands me a $100 dollar bill and instructs me to go to the last window. I apply for my visa, one of the most expensive so far on the race. They take our passports and begin to process them. 30 minutes later we get back on the bus and have our passports returned to us. I buy a bottle of water from one of the dozen of guys all trying to sell us the same drinks and snacks. I am super dehydrated but there are never bathrooms on the bus and stops are few. I drink only when I have to because there is nothing worse than having to pee and attempting to ask the non-english speaking bus driver to stop is sometimes more hassle than it is worth, just ask Auman. This section of the drive will be long. Once again, I-pod, happy place and a comfortable position. However by this point the “happy place” is virtually impossible. The longer I am away from Eddie and Michael and Edgar the more I miss them. I haven’t been this sad saying good bye since I left my family and friends back in October. I know the Lord has called me to two more months on this race but my flesh wants nothing more than to be back in Mukono with all of them. We make our way right through the bush of Africa, literally National Geographic every where you look. Auman and I go back and forth between listening to tunes, talking, sleeping, eating, and listening to others on the bus. We are entertained by this German guy, two seats ahead of us, who has a 1.5 liter Sprite bottle filled with some sort of alcohol. He remains drunk the entire ride. He tells us that he has been in Kenya for 6 years, is originally from Europe and spent some time in America as well. He also told us that he has be exiled from the U.S. for life……we all ask ourselves who the heck is this guy???? Just one of the few things that only seems to happen on the World Race.
5:15 PM….. We stop for dinner and run into the rest of our squad who left on an earlier bus. Their bus is being fixed so we leave them behind.
July 3
12:30 AM….. We finally arrive in Dar Es Salaam, the coastal capital of Tanzania. We stop at one bus stop but we are told there is a larger main bus station. As we drive through the streets of the city it is the second time I felt uneasy on the race. By this time is it 12:45 AM and there are homeless and drunks everywhere. Auman and I keep anticipating that we will be dropped off in the middle of them somewhere.
1:00 AM…..We arrive at the bus stop and shortly there after are greeted by Mac’s pastor who will be housing us for the night till we buy tickets for Iringa. We make our way to his house. It has no running water or even well water, which means after traveling for over 30 hrs we can’t even wash our hands or faces. I have hit an all time low…..What has my life come to???? I try with all that is in me to attempt a smile. Oh and I am still dehydrated because I have been scared to drink water. But the bad news is that we are in Tanzania and haven’t exchanged money so we can’t buy any either. Man, this blows!
2:00 AM…..I finally lay my head on the pillow.
8:30 AM….. I wake up…nobody knows what is going on, the pastor is at church, we don’t have sim cards yet and have no Tanzanian money to get anywhere. We eat the left over food from travel day, sip the last drops of water and wait.
2:00 PM….. The pastor finally comes back. We finally go to the store, buy bus tickets for the next morning, withdraw money from the ATM and I GULP some water.
July 4
4:00 AM…. We pack 24 people and all our luggage in a bus and make our way to the bus station for our 7:00 bus.
5:15 AM…..We make our way through literally hundreds of buses. Pastor finally finds our bus and we pack on our luggage.
6:00 AM….. We find our assigned seats and Auman and I get the seat directly under the ONE speaker for the ENTIRE bus. AHHHHHHHH my nerves are fried to the max to begin with but this just pushes me over the edge. We spend the next 30 minutes turning the volume down when the driver exits the bus and then watch as he turns it right back up when he gets back in. (We ask nicely the first time but he doesn’t understand so we spend the next 8 hours with this BLARING in our ears. Even my I-pod is unable to mask the sound.)
8:00 AM….. We finally depart.
4:00 PM….. After a fairly uneventful 8 hour bus ride, we arrive in Iringa, our location for the next month. All I can say is I never thought I would be off those buses.
After 4 days, and about 40 plus hours of bus travel it is finally over.
I am going to be completely honest and say this past weekend was probably the worse on this race. 40 hours of bus travel anywhere would be torture but this was Africa and this is month 10. I honestly can’t handle anymore of this stress. I like to think that in moments of stress I can stay cool, calm, and collected but those three words did not describe me this time. For that I am sorry, but less than 4 days ago I said good-bye to the best friends I have made on this race next to squad members, it is going on 10 months that I have been away from home, one of my favorite American holidays was this weekend, and my life after this race is staring me straight in the face and it is scaring me to death.
Lindsay, Eddy, and I…he looks so happy doesnt he?
Needless to say it is a moment by moment struggle to stay positive and to keep my mind in a happy place. I want to be completely present this month but it is going to be hard. So then I had some Jesus time and I got some encouragement. Coming on this race I knew that we would be changing and saying good-bye every month. But I guess I didn’t think about how hard it would be and how much it would affect me. At this point I need to trust the Lord has my heart in his hands and He will bring me back to Mukono, and that He has my life planned out for the rest of my days.
Until Next Time
Love Annalisa
