Travelling to Mwanza 03.05.12

TRAVELLING TO MWANZA 03.05.2012

bus to the right to Mwanza

We left home at 8 am and Kiboi drove Agnes and me to the bus station in Nairobi. Before the bus leaves it must be filled totally with people so it was not before 9.30 we left for Mwanza. Busses here are not bigger than in Europe but there are two seats on the left and three on the right. That means that you sit squeezed. First I sat with the window, it is warm in the bus but while driving there is draught. There are holes in the window so you can open it, so I put parts of a handkerchief in the holes, it didn’t help much, and I was freezing. Stupid me thinks it is always hot in Kenya but get surprised every time that I need to take more clothes and warm shawls with me. I did not want to catch a cold again. But sitting in the middle squeezed between Agnes and a man was not quite comfortable. Sometimes very stupid things turn out to be very handy like an air pillow that was protecting my back especially when the bus drives over a bump in the road, and they are many. Every time new passengers enter or alight, you have to watch your luggage. Before we left many sellers came into the bus with sodas, biscuits, fruits, white bread etc. Also with stops on the way people come in to sell. A pastor was preaching and sold bibles, when Agnes did so it stood in the bible “not for sale”, so it should be free. A man entered selling pills and toothbrushes with special toothpaste. Then they get off at the next stop. We drove into the Rift Valley and that is always a stunning experience, so beautiful that it takes your breath. Just before Narok the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere and many people got out of the bus and disappeared in the bushes, so that was the sanitary stop! There was not always a tarmac road but also sand roads. The nature was stunning, the country is so prosperous. We drove through a region where they grow tea and many vegetables. The whole agriculture looked very well kept. The bus was not exactly an express bus; it stopped at all kind of small places. We had watched on television two days before that the express bus company Akamba was closed down that day. Agnes was calling with a cousin who advised her if we should strand at the border. We reached Isibania at the border 4.30 pm after a 7 hours bus ride. There Agnes found out that the last bus to Mwanza left half an hour ago. In Tanzania the buses don’t drive in the dark because of danger. So there we stood and it started raining and all the people were staring at me as a white person (mzungu). I got bit frustrated but Agnes remained very calm and was finding out what to do. Here I really learnt something. Her husband has relatives in that town, so she was asking people how we could find them. We were told to take a taxi that drove us like 20 steps away to a restaurant that is owned by the cousin. We had supper there and the cousin drove us to his parents. We were offered oranges and tea.

 

the sitting room

 They thought that a mzungu should stay in a hotel and not in the house because they are much more demanding. So they drove us to a lodge and were so nice to pay for our stay. I show a picture of the bathroom. It was very clean, but you see wings of a kind of beetles on the floor. They often come to the light when it is raining (do you remember Tina and Odilia!!!). They are not dangerous at all but they are many and are all over the place. Their wings fall of easily. The toilet is a hole in the floor and you could even flush this one. 

                                                                   

                                                                                                                       

The next morning we were invited to breakfast at 6.30 am and got fetched again. After a nice breakfast they asked us to come again on the way back, and this mzungu could stay in the house! The cousin and a friend Wangari drove us to the border and there they were asked to pay ksh 400 to pass, this is bribing! He got it down to 100. It was quite a distance to the Tanzanian bus, so it is not that you alight from the bus on one side and can enter another at the other side. We were very grateful for this kind service. The bus stopped in the nearest town and there again we had to wait till the bus was full. Many people tried to sell their merchandise that they were wearing on the head. There was even a man with a pile of socks on his head!

                                                                                  

            

                                     

It took another 4 hours to arrive in Mwanza where several women were surprising us by welcoming us with a strange lalalalala, hugging us all and taking our luggage we were so keen on. We were taken into a car driven by a woman with a burka, I felt not quite safe I must admit. We arrived safely with Lydia’s home driving on a road that seems to me impossible to drive on. Waters coming down from the hills had made big holes in the road; well you could not call it a road actually. Later it should turn out to be a fatal road for me.