Another African Adventure

What's a trip in Africa without a bit of adventure?! It seems like every time I want to do something here, something exciting/ridiculous happens. This weekend certainly did not disappoint.

This weekend, myself and my friends Maggie and Julie made the long journey from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania by bus, and eventually to the island of Zanzibar by ferry. If you ever go to Africa, please stop in Tanzania and make your way out to Zanzibar. It is absolutely beautiful. I loved this part of Africa.

A taxi picked Julie and I up Friday morning at 6 to get down to the bus station. We got there a bit before 6:30, when we were supposed to get on for our 7 o'clock bus to Dar. We met Maggie there, and waited...Finally a bus showed up at 7:15ish and looked really nice. But after everyone on the bus got off, it drove away, ruining our dreams of having the nice bus for our trip. At about 7:40, our bus finally showed up, and we left Nairobi a little before 8. I'm ready to be done with Kenya time.

The road coming up to the border of Kenya and Tanzania is not good. We made it to immigration, got stamped out of Kenya, walked across the border, and thoroughly enjoyed the immigration officer yelling "Three Americans! Three Americans!" when he finalized our passports and stamps in Tanzania. We got back on the bus and the bumpy road continued until we got to the Tanzanian city of Arusha. Arusha and the next town over, Moshi, are very nice. You can also see Mt. Kilimanjaro from this area, but it was cloudy, so we could not unfortunately see it.

Our bus stopped in Moshi, and all three of us went to the bathroom. When I came out, I heard a bus driving away, and I had heard some horror stories from people I know here about buses leaving people at stops. So I ran out and saw another bus leaving the station, but it was not ours. Well, I thought it wasn't ours. Julie and Maggie came running off our bus with our stuff, yelling at me that our bus had just left. Supposedly they told the front of our bus that we were transferring buses in Moshi, but we did not hear it sitting toward the back. So I grabbed my bag quick from Julie and started running after the bus. My bag was still open, so things were falling out and people were yelling at me to stop. Fortunately, the lady at the bus station called the bus back and we got on, along with another lady they left. Maggie was on her a-game, grabbing my jacket off the other bus!

So we went for a while, a long while. And while this part of Tanzania is beautiful with long stretches of savannah interrupted with small mountains with rock faces and fields of aloe plants, we had another problem. It started raining. At one point, I felt like the bus drove through a small river on the road, and we passed an accident where a semi flipped on its side. Luckily, we made our way safely through the rain. But according to the bus line, our ride would be about 14 hours....it was definitely over 16.

So, after midnight we finally came into Dar. We were confused, however, as to which bus stop we should get off at as there are two. So luckily, Maggie has internet on her phone, so we could call the hostel, make sure we could still come in at that time and what stop to get off at. We got off at the right stop, found a cab and made our way to our hostel.

When we walked in, the place looked a bit sketchy. But our room was more than suitable for the night. It had recently been refurbished, so when we walked in, there was an ok bathroom, three beds, a pretty big flat screen tv, and our favorite part, AIR CONDITIONING!!! We were more than excited to sleep after the long day.

We woke up the next morning, and met the travel agent for the hostel. He was super helpful all morning, taking us to breakfast, an ATM, and then by cab to the bus stop, and finally the port where we booked our tickets to take the ferry from Dar to Zanzibar.

We got on the ferry, and that was another fun adventure. The ferry was pretty big, and could probably carry a couple hundred people. Maggie and I watched this ridiculous movie they showed while Julie went up on the deck to catch the view. This was all while the lady across the aisle from me got motion sickness and vomited twice, and then for some reason ate chips, and then vomited again. We finally got into Zanzibar a couple hours later.

After going through immigration at Zanzibar, we met a guy who we could rent a car through. Maggie has her international driver's license, so we were able to get a car instead of taking a taxi, saving us money as the the drive was about an hour from the port at Stone Town to our hotel. Unfortunately, Maggie didn't have her international driver's license on her, so we had to go to the Zanzibar license place, and she got a driving permit for a week. After getting that, we finally were on the island, ready to go.

We made our way first through Stone Town, an old city that's the hub of Zanzibar with a strong classic European feel to it with small roads and three story buildings providing walkways to people going from shop to shop. As we moved out of Stone Town, we got to see the beautiful landscape of the island. Palm trees were everywhere, with small villages along the way. We also found out that A TON of people bike or moped their way around, and they're mildly insane.

About an hour later, we found our way to the little village of Paje on the east coast of the island. We made our way to the hotel, checked in, and went out to the beach. Here, we met up with some of the people in Julie and mine's program who came to Zanzibar from Mombasa. It was great to see them.

When we walked out on the beach, we were amazed by the beautiful ongoing white sand beaches, bright blue water, old wooden boats offshore and relaxed feel of the island. O yea, and there was a rainbow over the water!!! Not a bad way to be greeted to tropical paradise after a long trek. We swam for a while, showered, grabbed some dinner, and then we fell asleep early after a long day of travel.

We woke up Sunday morning and made our way down to the beach. After a bit of journaling, I grabbed breakfast with some other people, and then my friend and I made our way to a restaurant/resort next door where we had a great little drink in their pool that was surrounded by green plants with these beautiful white flowers. Then we made our way back to the beach and hung out until about noon. The water here is protected by coral reef a few hundred yards offshore, so Maggie and I swam out about 1/4 mile from the beach, and because of the low tide could stand up.

After noon, Maggie, Julie and I got ready, said good bye, and made the hour long drive back to Stone Town. We bummed around the city for a while, doing some shopping and seeing the old city. After a quick lunch, we made it in time for our ferry back to Dar. The dock was INSANE, filled with people trying to get on boats.

The boat we got on back to Dar was a bigger ferry than our original, and that meant more people. But also, the waves were worse, so I started getting a bit of motion sickness. Luckily, I made my way to the back of the boat, where I stood for almost the entirety of the ride, watching the sun set over the expanse of ocean. It was absolutely beautiful.

We docked in Dar, and Maggie was not feeling well, so we made our way back to the hostel we stayed in two nights before, and then Julie and I went out for dinner. Being Easter Sunday, most places were closed, including Subway! When getting money from an ATM at a mall in Dar, I saw a sign for Subway, the first American restaurant I've seen in Africa. We tried to make it for dinner Sunday night, but it was already closed. So Julie and I ended up at this hotel restaurant in the same building that served: creole/New Orleans food?!? In Dar es Salaam?? Anyway, we grabbed dinner, made our way back to the hostel, and fell asleep.

We woke up at 4:15 yesterday morning to catch our 5 o'clock bus. Unfortunately Maggie was not feeling better, so she won my "Keep Fighting" award for the weekend, enduring the bus ride despite being fairly ill. We left at 5, went to the second bus stop, and left Dar at 6:30. We made our way across Tanzania, and this time, got to see Mt. Kilmanjaro!! This was one of the three things I wanted to do in Africa: Visit Mombasa, go to Masai Mara and see Mt. Kilimanjaro.

While we could only see the peak as the rest of the mountain was covered with clouds ,it was an absolutely beautiful sight. I would love to hike it, but the cost is a bit high..about $1000. So, I decided that at some point in my life, I'm going to come back and hike that thing. But the view of the snow covered peak rising above the clouds is amazing (and seeing snow in Africa is a bit odd...)

We drove the rest of the way through Tanzania and went through immigration, and made our way back into Kenya. As we drove about 5 minutes from the border, I looked out, and could see Mt. Kilimanjaro in its entirety. I was so excited to see the whole thing, and that's how we closed our trip, seeing the sun set over Mt. Kilimanjaro.

This trip taught me a lot, mostly to trust in God. I am someone who wants everything finalized way ahead of time, and when things don't go well, I tend to stress out big time. That happened more than enough times this weekend, but it seems like every time that happened, I saw a rainbow. We saw three on our drive through Tanzania and then two when we arrived at our place in Zanzibar. I repeatedly heard God telling me that I need to stop being so concerned and worried about everything, and to just slow down and trust what he has in store for me. As we closed our trip looking at Kilimanjaro, all I could think of was Bebo Norman's "Walk Down This Mountain" and what God taught me this last weekend. So I'll leave you with the lyrics God left on my heart last night "So walk down this mountain with your heart held high. Follow in the footsteps of your maker. With this love that's gone before you and these people at your side. If you offer up your broken cup, you will taste the meaning of this life." When we offer up our lives from the stress and whatever challenges we have in our lives and simply enjoy the beauty around us, we can truly taste the meaning of why we are here.