In the last blog I ended up in Eldoret, Kenya with two of
our teams. After settling in and sleeping for a while, I was able to spend some
time with both teams which was great. During this time, Andrea had officially
taken over her new team, and one of the girls came to Denise, Tamica, and I and
said that she felt God leading her to join the team that Andrea just left. We
decided to take it to God ourselves to confirm these feelings, and came to the
conclusion that she was right, she was being called to that team. So after some
phone calls and logistical set up, we made plans to leave within a few days.
Denise and Tamica weren’t feeling great at the time (don’t worry, they are just
fine now) so it would just be me and April Wright traveling back to Tanzania
where the girls would meet us in a few days time.
Travel day quickly arrived and April and I were getting
ready. We had planned to leave by noon, knowing that the trip to Nairobi was
going to be a five hour trip minimum, but our contact informed us that we would
be delayed about two hours. We had a 9:30pm bus to catch, so we figured our
delay wouldn’t hurt us too bad. 2 o’clock rolled around and off we were heading
to town to catch a matatu (van) back to Nairobi and by 2:25 we were on the
road! The ride was pleasant for the most part, only having to make one
scheduled stop. Then we got near Nairobi. When we got near the city, it looked
like it was going to be close timewise, and then we came to a compete standstill.
If you have never been to Nairobi, it is a beautiful city, one of my favorites
on the Race actually, but traffic in the early morning and in the evening is
absolutely terrible. People were walking faster than we were moving, it was
really quite funny. We got to our stop at around 8:30 and realized quickly that
with traffic the way it was, there was no way we would make our 9:30 bus in
time. We made a few phone calls and headed for our home away from home,
Milimani Backpackers Hostel. During one of the phone calls to the bus station,
they informed us that the next bus leaving for Mwanza, Tanzania wouldn’t be
leaving until 9:30 the next evening, so we had a full 24 hours before our next
leg of travel. During that time, we would eat, wait, eat again, and go to the
Yaya shopping center to roam around and kill time. April and I made the best of
it.
The time came for us to leave so we gathered our belongings
and jumped into a cab to take us to the bus station. Luckily we remembered to
leave 2 hours early (even though it was only 20 minutes away) because it took
us over an hour to get there with the traffic. After about an hour wait, we got
our stuff put on the bus and got checked in and sat down in our seats. We
quickly realized that our seats were broken, which wouldn’t have been a problem
normally, but the passengers in front of us had working seats and reclined as
far back as they could which left April and I just enough room to breath and
that was about it. But, God was favoring us that night, and gave us new seats
right behind the bus driver because the bus was far from full. After a quick
seat swap, we were off to Tanzania. I was able to fall asleep for much of the
trip to the border, April on the other hand, was awake for most of it, mainly
because she feared the driving of our guide. He apparently preferred to drive
on the wrong side of the road while smoking something out the window. I was
oblivious to all of it and had peaceful slumber.
We arrived at the border at around 6 in the morning and got
through the Kenyan side with no problems whatsoever. Then it got interesting. I
had no trouble getting a stamp to the country because I had been there a little
over a week ago, but the border agent was giving April a hard time because of
our currency. It takes $100 USD to get into Tanzania, and we had a $100 bill,
which shouldn’t be a problem right? Wrong. The border agent tried to tell us
that our bill was the wrong year, it was a 1996 bill and they don’t accept any
bills that are older than 2004. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point.
I asked the man to show me this policy in writing and he refused. He then acted
as if he were calling someone, so I asked him to call his supervisor. At this
point a man walked in, before the call was ever made, and walked behind the
counter, the two talked in Swahili and the man who walked in came out from
behind the counter and told me they won’t accept our currency, only saying they
can’t accept it based on the year. Again, I asked for proof of this policy only
to be met with hostility. I then informed the border agent that if they were
not going to take the money, then I wanted the money, and the passport back.
They gave me a hard time about this until I pressed very firmly that I was only
willing to accept one of two options: stamp the passport and take the money, or
hand both back to me. He eventually decided to hand them both back to me. At
this point, I decided to go back to the Kenyan side to see if someone had
another bill I could trade them for, no luck. So I came back and went around
asking for anyone who could help us. One man tried very hard for us, but
eventually couldn’t help us. Then, our bus driver informed me that they
couldn’t wait for us any longer and had to leave, so we had to gather our stuff
and watch as our bus left us behind at the border. I then made a few phone
calls to our teams in Mwanza and told them our situation, someone was going to
have to come get us with new money at the border and we had to wait until then.
April and I decided to make the best of our situation, so
with all of our stuff sitting out near us, we busted out my computer and
started watching a movie outside the border control office. Dumb and Dumber was
our movie of choice, a great pick for a morning filled with frustration. About
45 minutes into our movie, a woman in border control gear came up to us and
asked us what we were doing. We informed her of our situation and she told us
she would try to run our bill through. Within five minutes, April had a
Tanzanian stamp in her passport and we were on our way across the border. Our
next task: Get to Mwanza.
God showed us favor again, and after walking roughly half a
mile or so, we found a bus going to Mwanza! We quickly jumped on board and
settled in for the 5 hour trip. At about the 45 minute mark, our bus pulled
into a small bus station, and our driver disappeared. April and I couldn’t help
but joke about our situation as we had no other option but to wait. After about
an hour, our driver came back, and the bus filled up and off we were again.
After another hour or so we had to stop again, this time because of a loud POP.
Turns out our driver took a pot hole too fast and it busted our tire. Again,
all we could do was laugh. 45 minutes later we were back on the road, this
time, we made it to Mwanza. We called our hosts and they came to get us soon
after. The last crazy part of the travel happened on the way to the Dolla Dolla
(what they call taxi-vans in Tanzania). As we were walking I felt this slight
pull at my pocket, so I threw my hand back out of instinct and ended up
grabbing a persons hand. As I looked back, sure enough, I had one of a guys
hands in mine, and in his other hand was my wallet! He quickly gave my wallet
back to me and ran off. After that experience, we boarded our Dolla Dolla and
made it safely to where they were staying.
Thankfully, God was with us the entire time. We made it from
Eldoret, Kenya to Mwanza, Tanzania safely, and will all of our things. We even
have one heck of a story to tell our friends and family!
This has been one amazing trip and I’m thankful that God put
me on it. We have a little over 3 months left and I can already see that its
going to fly by. Thank all of you so much for your prayers and your support, we
love and miss all of you!
