I Don’t Think We’re in Tanzania Anymore, Toto

And, we’re not.  On Thursday, Collin and I left Tanga for a short trip to Kenya.  Mombasa, Kenya, and the beaches south of Mombasa to be exact.  After our bumpy bus ride north from Tanga, along the coast, we reached the Kenyan border.  The road in Tanzania is currently under construction thanks to funding from the U.S. Government.  The road looks lovely.  Flat, wide, and….incomplete.  As we bumped along on the old road, we could watch the beautiful expanse of almost complete road out our window the entire ride.  Talk about salt in the wound. 

As we approached the border to Kenya, we were given papers to fill out— 3 of them.  If you have ever tried writing in the car, you know that it can be difficult.  If you’ve ever tried writing on a bus in a developing country, you know it is impossible.   We were afraid we would be turned away at the boarder for writing like 3 year-olds.  Our forms were completely illegible and despite the fact that we started filling them out about 30 minutes before we got there, we were still not done when we reached the border.  Lucky for us, they let us in anyway and we discovered that the road we were travelling in Kenya was actually quite pleasant.  We felt like we were flying, though I’m pretty sure we were just going about 50 mph.  We reached our destination of Ukundu in no time and hailed a taxi for our hotel.  Phase 1 of the vacation was successfully completed!

We stayed around Ukundu for two days at a lovely place called “Forest Dream” (because when I think of Kenya, I think of forests?).  Across the main road and down a little further was access to a beautiful beach.  Mombasa and the beaches surrounding are quite a vacation destination.  It can be fun to be in a touristy place…and it has its drawbacks as well.  One of the perks is that people expect to see white people who only speak English, so just a few words of Swahili makes them think “wow!”.  One of the downers is that you can’t walk 5 steps without someone saying “my friend, I make a special price for you, because you are my friend!”  We experienced this some while we were in Zanzibar, but nothing could prepare us for Mombasa’s determination.  Collin and I tried various approaches to avoid these meetings.  We spoke in Spanish (this may have been a more successful approach if I actually spoke any Spanish).  We told them that we had no money (you would think that that would send people away, but it didn’t seem to deter them).  Our final and most successful attempt was to “walk with purpose,” as Collin called it.  Just walk like a New Yorker and they tend to leave you alone.  It makes it difficult to enjoy the beach, but at least we made good time!  Sometimes they just step up their game and try a new sales approach.  Once we actually reached the city of Mombasa I received several “Madam, you are beautiful”s and a couple “You need a bus ticket?  But I am in love with you!”   If you are ever in need of a morale boost (or marriage proposal)…Mombasa is the place for you. 

Something that most people probably don’t know about Kenya is that English is actually the official language of the country, which means a lot of people speak it.  This is very helpful for people like myself who speak only a little (“kidogo”—remember this word…it will come in handy later) Swahili. 

After spending two nights in Ukunda, we hired a taxi to drive us the 40km (25 miles) to the city of Mombasa—the second largest city in Kenya (next to the Capitol of Nairobi).  We asked the driver if he would stay with us in the city and take us places we wanted to go, since we had no idea where anything was.    Thankfully he said yes and we embarked on our few hour tour of the city.  He took us first to Fort Jesus, a fort built at the end of the 16^th Century by the Portuguese looking to secure the port city as their own.  Old town Mombasa is beautiful and has a heavy Muslim influence.  The roads of the old part of the city are very narrow, with old buildings towering on each side of you.  Very Beautiful!

Collin and I have learned several lessons while we have been here.  We learn some every new place that we go.  Here are some that I have learned while I have been in Kenya:

Lesson #1:  If you are the type of person who smears their nail polish the moment you are done painting your nails, you should not be the type of person to get something semi-permanent…like, say….henna for example.

Lesson #2: If you ignore lesson 1 and decide to get henna anyways, be sure that cross-cultural barriers are out of the way before you begin.  For example, kidogo (little—see I told you it would come in handy) to me might mean “a few little dotted flowers on maybe one finger.”  Kidogo to a henna artist might mean “maybe we only go half way up the arm.” 

Lessons learned.  I have taken these lessons to heart and will never make the same mistakes again (or at least for another couple of months).

After we left Fort Jesus, we drove to find a place to have lunch and our driver dropped us off at a restaurant something akin to a Kenyan version of the Hard Rock Café, where you could order a cheeseburger called the “Michael Jackson Facelifter.”  I don’t know why.  Collin ordered the “Stevie Wonder” burger and I stuck with my standard since I have been here of “fish”.  When we finished, we loaded back into our taxi and headed to the bus stand to drop me off before the driver took Collin to the Airport.  Here we were…I had known it was coming for a long time now…but I was dreading it.  The goodbye. 

For the past five weeks, with the exception of when we were sleeping, we have probably been apart for a grand total of 8 hours.  So the fact that we were saying goodbye for at least 5 months was a little hard to take.  Collin has been a wonderful friend, co-worker, and traveling companion.  Together we have experienced culture, awesome sights, successes, and failures (or “learning experiences” as my 4-H Educators called them). 

Note to Collin:  Have a wonderful time on the rest of your trip!  When things go wrong, just think to yourself “hakuna matata” and “T.I.A.”  Then give yourself a homeschooler nipi tano for me!

After we said goodbye (or “see you later” as we like to say instead), I set off to purchase a bus ticket back to Tanga…all by myself.  This is the first thing I have had to do solo since I stepped off the bus in Tanga and I was somewhat saddened to find that the bus didn’t leave until 5:30 pm.  I bought the ticket at 2:30.  So, what does a girl do for 3 hours by herself in a city she knows nothing about while carrying her luggage?  She finds a restaurant, orders a Coke, and sits down to write her blog.  And that is where you would find me now (if I had internet and was posting this immediately).  I have been here for 2 hours thus far and have, just by sitting here been able to procure the phone numbers of two men.  Only one of whom would I ever consider calling.  Allow me to explain.

I hadn’t been sitting here for very long before I noticed that every time I looked up, a man sitting in the corner was looking at me.  When he approached me after this went on for about 30 minutes, I nearly said “look buddy, I know I’m white.  I don’t want a bus ticket.  I don’t want sunglasses.  And I don’t want a keychain with my name engraved in it.”  I’m glad I didn’t.  He walked up and said “Hello, are you Olivia?”  I said, “Umm.  No.”  He said, “I’m so sorry.  That is why I have been looking at you.  A women named Olivia came here from Britain about 3 years ago to work in the hospital with a group of students.  She stayed in my house and you look a lot like her.”  I was still a little suspicious but as the conversation went on it became obvious that it was true.  It turns out that this man (his name is David) has students work with him as he takes them to surrounding areas to work with the hospital.  David’s son is studying economics at Texas Tech University.  I said “I WENT TO COLLEGE AT TEXAS A&M!” and the conversation continued.  To you Aggies out there, I did refrain from hissing at the mention of “Tortilla Tech,” as I don’t need anyone to think that I am weird here.  My permanent Fightin’ Texas Aggie Ring tan-line proves my allegiance.  Maybe I could get a henna Aggie Ring…just in case I ever lost mine.  It’s an idea, anyways.  And on a side note, if you turn your Aggie Ring around, it looks convincingly like a wedding band…I would need this approach later on in the evening.  David told me that if I am ever in Mombasa again to give him a call and he will show me the work he does and maybe I could work with the students if there are any there at the time.  These are the kinds of chance meetings that I love about travelling.  I have yet to go somewhere and not meet someone who has something absolutely fascinating to say!

I left the restaurant to find my bus at about 5:00.  This was easier said than done.  When the bus finally pulled up a little after 5:30, I boarded, sat where the nice man told me to and waited.  There was a huge stack of supplies outside of the bus.  Boxes of margarine, apples, sacks of flour, and a ton of other items.  This wasn’t actually a bus.  It was a mini-bus.  Something between a daladala and a coach.  And to my surprise (and chagrin), they were loading ALL of those supplies onto the bus.  I don’t know how they did it but under every seat, in every crack, and filling the aisles were boxes and bags of supplies.  I should know by now that 5:30 does not mean 5:30, but I still sat and looked at my watch every 5 minutes.  Around 6:30 we pulled away from the curb, drove for about 10 minutes and came to a stop.  Suddenly everyone got off the bus.  I didn’t know why, but I figured that I better too.  The bus driver stopped me and asked if I knew how to find the bus after we crossed on the ferry and when I said no he pointed to a woman and said “follow her.”  And I did.  I wouldn’t let her out of my sight as hundreds of people ran to get onto the ferry.  I don’t know why we were running, but when everyone else is, you don’t really have a choice.  We boarded the ferry, stood while the ferry crossed the BAY, and then everyone started running again.  I still don’t know why we were all running, but again, no choice.  I followed the nice women for about 15 minutes through crowds of people and lines of buses, and miraculously, we boarded our bus again.  Because we are so near the equator, it gets dark here around 6:30 every night, so this entire event took place in the dark, which makes life a little more difficult.

We finally crossed into Tanzania after going through customs and immigration, reloaded the bus and began the arduous journey through the rough roads of Tanzania, getting back into Tanga at nearly midnight.  Totally exhausted, the bus driver found a taxi for me that he knew would be safe and I went on my way back to the 4H Center, arriving back a little after midnight.

I had a wonderful time travelling and while I loved having a travel buddy to share my experiences with, it is a completely different adventure to travel by yourself.  It’s like when you go to the mall by yourself and you feel a little lonely at first and wonder what you will do.  Then it occurs to you that you can do whatever you want.  You want to try on a hundred different shirts, you can.  You want to get a soft pretzel, go ahead.  You want to sit on a bench and do nothing, you can do that too.  Once you embrace this concept, the world is your oyster and I am excited to see what new adventures come my way in the next few months!

I know that this post wasn’t really about my 4H work, but rest assured that my next one will be as I am becoming increasingly busy!  I hope everyone’s 4^th of July was AMAZING!  And as always, look to Facebook for my pictures…including the great henna experiment!    If you don't have a Facebook (shocking, I know), you can follow this link to find the pictures!  I just found this out, or I would have been doing this all along.

Tanzania 4H Photos