… My intro to Dar es Salaam.
So, I have been in a rural village since the 5th
of April, so I must admit I am a tad totally confused as to what day it
actually is, and when exactly everything happened in the last 3 days… Wait,
what happened? Oh, right, I didn’t mention that yet… Well, I kind of got to
witness first hand a natural disaster… I also got to get a taste for what
refugees feel like… and I may or may not have eaten almost an entire jar of
peanut butter for dinner… Also as of this moment have been unable to have any
internet communication for about 10 days now, which to be honest I absolutely
love… Though, I really needed to post another blog post or two and get caught
up on emails for housing situations next year for school… So blah, oh well
anyhoo… Here we go.
I will explain the rural village in another post but will
currently write about our experience getting from Lushoto to Dar es Salaam, so
now… Story time.
We set out from the Mountain View Lodge ( or whatever it was
called… Basically, hotel like place in the most spectacular mountains I have
ever seen… J ) at about 8 am in a hope to beat the rain
and with prayers that the bus would actually be able to make it out of the
mountains on the muddy roads… With only one problem hill and three or four
tries we made it to the pavement… Where we blew another tire. Now, I say another
because the previous day the bus had been attempting to pick us up from our
hike, wound up in a ditch and with the help of some amazing people (African’s
are seriously some of the most helpful amazing people ever!) The bus was fine,
excluding the fact that one of the tires was flat. So now here we all are a
bunch of wazungu and a bus with two completely flat tires and an amazing bus
driver (I say amazing because he seriously helped protect our lives)… Some kind
people stopped their public transport bus to help us and after the jack was
working, the tires were rotated, and many laughs were had at the fact that we
were stuck in the most beautiful place possible and that it could be much worse
( Someone really should have knocked on some wood…) We all headed down to town.
Once in town we bought some sodas and meandered around trying to get really
good deals on fruit while the bus was in repair. Once on the road again we were
all in happy care free moods… Even us sickies (Yes! Big surprise… I was sick...
Again... Though this time it was a horrible cold… Which was new…) were fairly
happy. We were all excited for the infamous Dar es Salaam and one of the final
journeys on our trip. I am so thankful now we were so light hearted with the
situation. What would turn into the next 12 hours in the car together would be
probably some of the most tolerant waiting that I would experience in my life.
Anyways so we carried on, we watched horrible Swahili soap operas, Matilda, and
had some pretty interesting conversations. As we got closer to Dar we began to
see giant public transport buses pulled over to the side of the road, not just
one or two either. There were at least 15 or twenty in this one small area. Our
bus driver found out that the road to Dar was flooded, near the one bridge over
the river. Apparently the flooding was bad enough that no one was being allowed
to cross, we figured that the best thing to do would be to carry on even though
we figured we might get stuck. Which we did. Not more than an hour out of that
town we hit a wall of traffic in grid lock. People were all getting out of
their buses and walking around, the small town next to the road was partially
flooded, but among the mud and puddles people were selling food like mad,
bananas, cashews, soda, clothes… It was a bit crazy. At about hour 1 we decided
to go out in search of bathroom facilities… We found some bushes that over
looked a flooded field that were sufficient for our needs… On the slight
downside it was right near the road… So that was a little awkward, but non the
less very manageable. A while after that a few of us crossed the road to walk
around, it was amazing, we were stared at a lot but I think I remember only one
person calling “ Wazungu!” at us, and it may even had been a child. Everyone
was being kind to one another, everyone was on the same playing field, ex-pats,
Africans, Indians, Asian, and us… We were all waiting for the road to be
passable… At about hour 2.5… Or maybe 3… I am not exactly sure due to my
benedrill induced sleeping like state (in an attempt to make my cold allergy
symptoms go away I took some benedrill) trucks and buses began to come from the
other direction… An hour or two later our life finally began to move. There was
so much commotion, people were yelling, they were so happy! We found out later
that some had been waiting since 8 am that morning to cross… We were able to
drive for maybe another hour or so until we were stopped again. This time for
only an hour or so, but due to a lack of bushes we made a handy makeshift
bathroom out of blankets…
It was about 12 am
then… and it was at about this time I ate a good portion of the jar of peanut
butter I had had in my bag… No shame. Anyways, we would be stopping once or
twice more before we actually got over the bridge and into the ‘Danger Zone’ (
Cue song) as we got closer I could begin to see the magnitiude of the flood.
The road was raised slightly and to either side water was within a meter of the
pavement. Trees and houses were partially submerged and as we drove closer to
Dar I noticed that there were portions of the water that seemed to be rushing
from under the road… It took a moment for me to realize that we had long since
passed the bridge and this surging water was coming from one side of the road
to the other… By way of UNDER THE ROAD…. What may have once been small drain
pipes under the road had now become eroded water channels. The water gushed
right under the pavement… We got a call from the Vintons ( The family we stayed
with at the Lodge) who said they were watching it all from their TV, it was a
huge disaster people were lined up for miles and miles and the situation was
just looking worse and worse. As time went on the nervous tension among us and
among all of the drivers on the road seemed to be rising. About a half hour
driving at a stop and go pace on this road that seemed to be quite literally
having its foundation of dirt washed away as we drove on it we arrived at what
I would call the pinnacle of the adventure… The road before us was covered in 6
inches ( or more) or rushing water. The sides of the road could be marked by
the eroded broken concrete jutting up as the water poured over it. To the right
of the road I could make out 2 trucks (There was also a car, but I guess I
didn’t see it) I am not sure how long that part of our drive was but I knew
that I was wide awake and completely alert. Being from Oregon I have seen
flooding before, but I have never really been so nervous as to question if I
would make it out of a situation… We were in actual danger, the road could
actually be washed out at any moment… Even though my mind was rushing with the
possibilities… I was stunned. It was so like nothing I have ever seen that I
don’t think my words here can do it justice… Thanking God, we made it out
safely and about 2 hours later we arrive at our hotel at about 4 am and after
unloading the bus and carrying luggage up 5 flights of stairs I was passed out
in a bed… In Dar es Salaam, the biggest
city in Tanzania… We later calculated how long we had been traveling and we
figure dthat we actually spent more time with that bus than we did in the air
getting to Africa… It was crazy… But an amazing experience. Even though we had
4 fairly sick people, and 12+ hours of sitting waiting for the road to be clear
enough to proceed we have 0 complaints, no bickering, no snapping, no whining…
It was amazing. Kudos to all the people on this trip, I really don’t think 3
months ago we would have been able to handle such an event… Our patience and
tolerance astounded me… And not just ours, most every person I saw with the
exception of one bus driver rushing and pushing passed other cars were patient
and supportive. There was no fighting, no rioting, no violence… Somehow I don’t
think it would have happened like that in the U.S… It certainly makes you
think. It also gives me some more faith in humanity…
Here is a picture of the flooding we walked through today in town. More pictures to come.
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