Arusha

It is so crazy how dusty this luxury liner is.. There is a window missing in the front of the bus and I am sitting two rows back about to die of the' black lung' plus it has only been 9 degrees C… I feel sorry for the people that got on the bus at later stops because they are sitting in the aisle. I touch anything and it has this red/orange dust all over it. I even had something solid in my coke a few sips back. Who knows? TIA.. At least I have had a window seat and I haven’t had any stinky people sitting by me. There has only been one other person non-African on any of my rides. He is from Korea, I forgot to ask North or South.

I am on yet another bus ride to a new and exciting place! Sunday I took of from Kampala on the spur and went to Kenya. The trip was really long and boring but loratab helped me out! Nairobi… I was impressed on the size and cleanliness of the city but it has a completely different feel from Uganda. Maybe it is because I have friends in Kampala and I know it well and I was a lone without knowing the first thing about Nairobi, besides the riots that just passed. Honestly I did not love it. I did notice that women dress a lot better there. I guess because they are closer to a port for exports to not be so expensive and I guess it is a HUGE city. It was nice to get away to travel before I leave for the states but I miss kampala. The bus ride from Kampala-Nairobi was like 18 hours, then I got to Nairobi. The hotel that I had booked did not show that I had booked so I had to find another hotel at 6am while on loratab. It was an adventure. I got to the room and slept for a couple of hours then woke up and went for coffee at Nairobi Coffee House. It was great besides the fact by the time I got there they were not serving breakfast anymore, I will still remember it as a good spot, for next time. Then I went to the Serena because I knew there was on in Nairobi and I knew it would be safe. It worked out well because there was this beautiful park next to the sernea with a national monument. I stayed at the Serena for a couple of hours and then I went back to my hotel. Later in the evening I hired the taxi that picked me at the bus station to take me to the movies, he said the traffic was too bad so I hired him to walk with me. I have heard really scary stories about Nairobi, did not want to walk alone. I made friends with this Mzee Peter and he was really good to me. I have been in a constant state of confusion with all of the different monies. I do not want a one world government but a common currency would be nice. I love collecting money but I hate exchanging and figuring out te rates so often. Anyways, I looked for a theatre and found one but I had seen both movies so I went to a couple of different places downtown by my hotel and seceded I was too afraid or too impatient to go to the other places and I just went to The Nairobi Coffee House again, the old man taxi driver would not eat with me because he said the food was too white.. It was really great. You know one thing I think is weird is that I only saw a handful of white people and the ones I saw were corporately dressed and definitely were not NGO types of dirty mzungus.

I just stopped at this bus stop and realized just how dirty I am! Wow…

Back to Nairobi…So I ate and then went back to the hotel and watched bad quality sitcoms until I fell asleep. I woke up at 5 to catch the bus to Dar re Salaam. So here I am. Islept the first couple of hours, until I got to the Tanzanian border. Getting my visa at the Kenyan and Tanzania was a hassle, I guess partly because I had bever done such a thing, everything in Africa is hard to get done, there were no other whites to follow, and because I had to first do the money thing.. I wish I would have carried US dollars, can you imagine they would not take Kenyan Shillings on the Tanzanian/Kenyan border but they would accept dollars?! A bit ironic I say. I entered Tanzania and I saw the Africa that I had seen in National Geographic. I guess I have been spoiled with Uganda and even Kenya’s civilization because when I entered Tanzania I was shocked.. The Mosai were there to greet us, just like you see on TV in the very traditional outfits, stretched ears, and cuts on their faces and then there were huge mountains on my left and desert on my right. There was absolutely no civilization. The living conditions are terrible, they are like little mud igloos. The only nice things were missionary post, like mini villages that had very “Christi” style churches in the center with signs painted in English, “First Methodist Church of kjhujhkjh(some town in Swahili).

Oh no it is raining and there is no window.. "JESUS I KNOW THAT PEOPLE ARE STARVING BECAUSE OF DROUGHT BUT"… I can’t finish that prayer.

I think it is so cool how the mosai have not Westernized, I guess they probably have a bit but they are very much traditional. Oh yes! I just got a free Stoney compliments of Dar re Salaam Express. I guess I have nothing else to write about my trip for now and my battery is dying. So will write when in Dar.