TIA,
This is Africa! 31 hour African bus ride from Bungoma, Kenya to
Morogoro, Tanzania!… Interesting couple of days!…
This is Africa! 31 hour African bus ride from Bungoma, Kenya to
Morogoro, Tanzania!… Interesting couple of days!…
So,
we start on an 8hour bus ride which turns out to be a little over
9hours from Bungoma, Kenya to Nairobi, Kenya to meet up with the rest
of our squad and then catch another bus in the morning for Dar es
Salem, Tanzania!.. 31hour bus ride, people trying to con us, take
advantage of us, trying to steel things, etc… It was crazy and
awesome!
we start on an 8hour bus ride which turns out to be a little over
9hours from Bungoma, Kenya to Nairobi, Kenya to meet up with the rest
of our squad and then catch another bus in the morning for Dar es
Salem, Tanzania!.. 31hour bus ride, people trying to con us, take
advantage of us, trying to steel things, etc… It was crazy and
awesome!
Well,
we leave Bungoma, Kenya on the 29th
on our way to Nairobi. Things were good, we were only delayed just
over an hour, so it was a 9hour trip. When we get to Nairobi, I go
to get a taxi and stand there with about 7kenyans trying to
overcharge us for a taxi and I continue to say no and finally walk
off and as I walk off, they finally agree with my price and so we go
to our Hostel to meet everyone… We are there at the hostel and they
tell us that the bus in the morning will be there at 6am ready to
leave, which it doesn’t show up until about 830, so we are way
behind schedule… This ride was crazy!…
we leave Bungoma, Kenya on the 29th
on our way to Nairobi. Things were good, we were only delayed just
over an hour, so it was a 9hour trip. When we get to Nairobi, I go
to get a taxi and stand there with about 7kenyans trying to
overcharge us for a taxi and I continue to say no and finally walk
off and as I walk off, they finally agree with my price and so we go
to our Hostel to meet everyone… We are there at the hostel and they
tell us that the bus in the morning will be there at 6am ready to
leave, which it doesn’t show up until about 830, so we are way
behind schedule… This ride was crazy!…
We
are packed in and over half of the trip is on dirt roads… and since
we are already running so late we Dale Ernheart Jr. driving and we
are flying across these roads!!! He finally decides to stop and we
are litterally on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere,
where it looks like what you would picture Africa to look like, dry,
dirt, sand, little dried out bushes and very few tree’s, and this
is where we stop to go the restroom, a bus full of about 50people on
the side of the road, out in the open, going the rest room… Then as
I said we were on dirt roads, every one of us on the bus was covered
in dirt, I mean covered in dirt… my shorts were no longer Khacki,
they were literally dirt orange… and as soon as we would try and
dust it off, we would be covered again… As we arrive at the border
of Kenya and Tanzania, we were told that the Visa’s were $50 USD or
4000 Kenya Shillings per person, so we pulled out just enough Kenya
shillings for each person, so we wouldn’t have extra Kenya
Shillings coming into Tanzania, b/c they always cheat you on the
conversion rate… So, we are at the immigration counter and the lady
tells me it’s 100USD or 8000KSH per person!… I am like what!? We
just called and they told us it was only 50USD/4000KSH… So, I try
talking with the lady and come to find out, only for US and Ireland
citizens, it’s 100USD and for everyone else it’s only $50USD…
are packed in and over half of the trip is on dirt roads… and since
we are already running so late we Dale Ernheart Jr. driving and we
are flying across these roads!!! He finally decides to stop and we
are litterally on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere,
where it looks like what you would picture Africa to look like, dry,
dirt, sand, little dried out bushes and very few tree’s, and this
is where we stop to go the restroom, a bus full of about 50people on
the side of the road, out in the open, going the rest room… Then as
I said we were on dirt roads, every one of us on the bus was covered
in dirt, I mean covered in dirt… my shorts were no longer Khacki,
they were literally dirt orange… and as soon as we would try and
dust it off, we would be covered again… As we arrive at the border
of Kenya and Tanzania, we were told that the Visa’s were $50 USD or
4000 Kenya Shillings per person, so we pulled out just enough Kenya
shillings for each person, so we wouldn’t have extra Kenya
Shillings coming into Tanzania, b/c they always cheat you on the
conversion rate… So, we are at the immigration counter and the lady
tells me it’s 100USD or 8000KSH per person!… I am like what!? We
just called and they told us it was only 50USD/4000KSH… So, I try
talking with the lady and come to find out, only for US and Ireland
citizens, it’s 100USD and for everyone else it’s only $50USD…
So, keep in mind, these borders are practically desolate, and the bus
driver tells us to be careful b/c there are tons and tons of conmen
trying to con people for something.. So, it’s 8000KSH we have 37 of
us Racers… So, a few of us walk back across the border to Kenya to
withdrawel the money b/c we can’t withdrawel that much money with
only one card and I come back to the counter and now I am counting
out 296,000 Kenya Shillings at the immigration counter and the lines
are looking at me like I am crazy… So, we get everyone’s passport
and I give her 37passports and 296,000 Shillings and she disappears
in the back… Finally an hour later she comes back and gives me our
passports.. So,not only were we running late before but now we are
even much later and the bus driver is not too happy… So, we load up
and b/c we are running so late, he only stops once for us for
15minutes for the rest of the trip!… Every place that we were
supposed to stop, he just drover straight through!… It was
hilarious!… Finally, we arrive in Dar es Salem, Tanzania just after
3am which we were supposed to arrive by midnight.. So, everyone is
exhausted, hungry and not to mention covered in layers of dirt… and
three of the teams are leaving on another bus at 5am…
So,
we load up onto some smaller private taxi buses that a contact of a
contact arranged for us to get to the hotel for the night.. Everyone
is practically half asleep and my bus is just about to leave a random
guy tries to get on our bus and one of the Tanzania contact guys
practically fights him out the door and shuts the door… Next thing
I now, I look up and see the guy standing right outside my side of
the vans window and the girls have their windows open… as soon as I
see him, I look at Bek a squadmate who is in the window seat and she
is half asleep and has her purse sitting on her lap and as I look up
the guy, I see him look at her purse and go for it and I wish I could
say it was my lightning quick reflexis, but by the power and wisdom
of the Holy Spirit my hand beat his hand and his hand landed on my
hand, so I pulled her purse, pushed his hand off and pushed him back
out the window and she slammed the window shut!… Talk about getting
awake and alert! Thank you Lord!! It was crazy, but now kind of
awesome!
we load up onto some smaller private taxi buses that a contact of a
contact arranged for us to get to the hotel for the night.. Everyone
is practically half asleep and my bus is just about to leave a random
guy tries to get on our bus and one of the Tanzania contact guys
practically fights him out the door and shuts the door… Next thing
I now, I look up and see the guy standing right outside my side of
the vans window and the girls have their windows open… as soon as I
see him, I look at Bek a squadmate who is in the window seat and she
is half asleep and has her purse sitting on her lap and as I look up
the guy, I see him look at her purse and go for it and I wish I could
say it was my lightning quick reflexis, but by the power and wisdom
of the Holy Spirit my hand beat his hand and his hand landed on my
hand, so I pulled her purse, pushed his hand off and pushed him back
out the window and she slammed the window shut!… Talk about getting
awake and alert! Thank you Lord!! It was crazy, but now kind of
awesome!
Ok,
so we arrive at the hotel, and instead of 240,000 Tanzania shillings
they are charging us 300,000 for the taxi’s because we were so
late, now they have to stay around the hotel now too since they are
taking three teams in less than two hours at 5am to the bus stop…
So it’s in the middle of the night, just got to Tanzania,
everything just happened at the bus stop and another finance person
and I are on our way to an ATM to pull out 800,000 Tanzania shillings
for the buses and for the teams that have to leave in less than 2hrs
for their next bus tickets to their destination.. Kind of a little
sketchy…wasn’t really the most comfortable time… lol Finally,
we get back to the hotel, pay for the buses and then split the money
for the teams that are leaving. I go to pay for our 13rooms and they
don’t take credit cards… So.. Now it’s almost 4am and I am
exhausted… They say I can run to the ATM in the morning to get more
money… So, finally I go to my room, take a shower and for some
reason cant really sleep b/c of everything going on.. So, morning
comes and I get up about 7:30am and walk to the ATM to withdrawel
another 400,000 TSH… I get back to the hotel to pay and instead of
charging us 51,000TSH per room like they said, they are charging us
90,000TSH per room, so here we go again!… I am not paying that. So
I talked to the contact lady and she starts talking with the hotel
people and comes out with if we would have paid last night they would
have been able to only charge us 51,000 per night and now that the
owner is here and sees that we are American we are getting the
American price.. I am still not paying that price. Finally almost 1
½ hours later, there is an agreement of 60,000 per room… We pay
that and we are running late to catch our buses, we were supposed to
leave at 9am to catch our buses at 12pm and it is 1045…. Everyone
loads up and meanwhile the contact lady tells me that she is charging
100USD for her services!… Which is crazy!.. We don’t even get
$100USD for something like this in the states!… So, again I am not
paying that… While I am talking to these people, to figure out what
is going on, b/c everything is much more expensive than we agreed on…
We arrive at the bus station and miss our first bus… Which turned
out better b/c the 2nd
bus was much nicer!! Lol
so we arrive at the hotel, and instead of 240,000 Tanzania shillings
they are charging us 300,000 for the taxi’s because we were so
late, now they have to stay around the hotel now too since they are
taking three teams in less than two hours at 5am to the bus stop…
So it’s in the middle of the night, just got to Tanzania,
everything just happened at the bus stop and another finance person
and I are on our way to an ATM to pull out 800,000 Tanzania shillings
for the buses and for the teams that have to leave in less than 2hrs
for their next bus tickets to their destination.. Kind of a little
sketchy…wasn’t really the most comfortable time… lol Finally,
we get back to the hotel, pay for the buses and then split the money
for the teams that are leaving. I go to pay for our 13rooms and they
don’t take credit cards… So.. Now it’s almost 4am and I am
exhausted… They say I can run to the ATM in the morning to get more
money… So, finally I go to my room, take a shower and for some
reason cant really sleep b/c of everything going on.. So, morning
comes and I get up about 7:30am and walk to the ATM to withdrawel
another 400,000 TSH… I get back to the hotel to pay and instead of
charging us 51,000TSH per room like they said, they are charging us
90,000TSH per room, so here we go again!… I am not paying that. So
I talked to the contact lady and she starts talking with the hotel
people and comes out with if we would have paid last night they would
have been able to only charge us 51,000 per night and now that the
owner is here and sees that we are American we are getting the
American price.. I am still not paying that price. Finally almost 1
½ hours later, there is an agreement of 60,000 per room… We pay
that and we are running late to catch our buses, we were supposed to
leave at 9am to catch our buses at 12pm and it is 1045…. Everyone
loads up and meanwhile the contact lady tells me that she is charging
100USD for her services!… Which is crazy!.. We don’t even get
$100USD for something like this in the states!… So, again I am not
paying that… While I am talking to these people, to figure out what
is going on, b/c everything is much more expensive than we agreed on…
We arrive at the bus station and miss our first bus… Which turned
out better b/c the 2nd
bus was much nicer!! Lol
So,
finally we eventually make it to Morogoro, Tanzania and as we
unload, people swirm us and start yelling at us…whether it’s
trying to sell us something, yelling out a taxi, singing, dancing,
you name it!… There is no such thing as personal space in Africa…
Not all the girls, but most of the girls were a little freaked out
and very uncomfortable… There were four of us guys and 15 girls so
us guys post up on 4corners around them and try to watch over them
and the bags, it was just crazy!!! Finally, our contacts show up and
we load up, go our own ways to our ministry locations in Morogoro,
Tanzania where we will be for the month!! Crazy and Intense couple
of days!!! I was exhausted! But, all in all, it was an awesome
experience and I love it!!!
finally we eventually make it to Morogoro, Tanzania and as we
unload, people swirm us and start yelling at us…whether it’s
trying to sell us something, yelling out a taxi, singing, dancing,
you name it!… There is no such thing as personal space in Africa…
Not all the girls, but most of the girls were a little freaked out
and very uncomfortable… There were four of us guys and 15 girls so
us guys post up on 4corners around them and try to watch over them
and the bags, it was just crazy!!! Finally, our contacts show up and
we load up, go our own ways to our ministry locations in Morogoro,
Tanzania where we will be for the month!! Crazy and Intense couple
of days!!! I was exhausted! But, all in all, it was an awesome
experience and I love it!!!
