All buses depart at 6:00 am in East Africa. I never found one that left at noon or 8 pm, always 6 am sharp. It is the only thing that is on time, everything else is on Africa time – pole pole meaning slow slow in Swahili.
I was in Arusha, Tanzania heading to Malawi and bought a ticket to the border city of Mbeya. I inquired which route would be taken and was assured that the bus would go straight thru Dodoma to the border. Exhausted from a late-night of partying I grabbed a moto-bike taxi and made my way to the depot around 5:30 am.
I boarded the typical Tanzanian bus – each has its distinctive style of deafening club and gospel music coupled with bright neon lights running overhead the central aisle. A general assault of the senses hungover or not. I smoothly negotiated with the driver to turn the lights off and turn the music down at least until 9 am. He was kind and charitable and gave us peace for the first few hours. I cozy-ed into my window seat for the 15-hour journey to Mbeya via Dodoma, straight through the center of Tanzania.
I had supplied my iPad with the new Netflix series “Stanger Things,” my offline Sudoko, some fresh music, a book and a new journal (I like having options). But without tapping into any of my amusements, I fell asleep quickly and woke up when the bus pulled to the side of the road for a mass exodus.
A side note ***Keep your day pack on you with your passport. Don’t run too far into the bush. Do your business. And never, ever be the last to board***
When back on the bus I checked out where we were and Wait, What??? We are past the road to Dodoma. In rough Swahili I verified with the wide mother sharing my seat that we were still on our way to the border. She nodded yes and handed me her baby. As soon as I took him, she fell asleep and I kept him for the next 3 hours until I felt he was wet then passed him back.
I fell back to sleep and woke up when the sky was turning dark and I checked my map again. What the hell are we doing heading into Dar Es Salaam? We’re at the beach! Cut through the middle, my ass. With a 15-minute break to stretch in Dar and then back onto the bus for another 15 hours and we finally made it to the Malawi border.
Total time – 31 hours. Expected time – 15 hours. Children held – 4.
