Time to catch up

I'm not really sure anything about time. Day and night seem fairly interchangeable. A seven a.m. breakfast consisted of a chicken pasty only an hour after we finished a chocolate protein bar. I was overjoyed to find a shop selling toothbrushes after a couple unsuccessful attempts, so at least I can do some basic hygiene.

At 8:00 we went to the office we needed to meet at for our 8:30 matatu headed to Arusha. the matatu was a 25 seat van with only three other passengers and the driver's two children. I heard Tarika call out "Bwana" to catch the driver's attention and ask him about the route. He listened to American and Kenyan rap music for the whole trip, and the music seemed to have affected his driving, too. He raced to get us to our destination as soon as possible.

At the Kenya-Tanzania border he was angrily prodding us along to move faster. This did in fact worry us because he had started driving off at the pitstop wile we still had one passenger AWOL. Back in the bus we crossed the fence and repeated the process of getting our passports stamped. Messiah women and children hung around the border crossing selling art and jewelry and begging for money, knowing that foreigners would be there. We also picked up two more passengers.

Twice more we pulled over before hitting Arusha. The first time was to pick up a friend of a passenger and the second time was to let the driver's son take care of business.

In the end, we arrived about an hour earlyb into Arusha. A man, flashing the badge of the company that owned the matatu, hopped into the van and told the passengers that were exiting here that he was setting up for local taxi drivers to take us to our hotels free of charge. I could not understand how the tri would be free, but we chanced it anyway. The driver was really just looking for an opportunity to sell us on further tours.

We drove along an uneven dirt road with houses and shops packed closely on either side. The houses were made of mud or cement bricks and had either tin or thatch roofs. People walked along the streets on either side of us, crowding the car. Turning along an unmarked road, we traveled further on a narrow road and soon came to a sign with the name of our lodge on it. As we stopped a the gate, a man opened it, letting us through.

We dragged our tired bodies into reception and most happily learned that our rooms had been upgraded to a private cabin (but only after a worrysome first moment when it seemed that the friendly front desk attendant could not find our reservation).

The opporutnity to sleep in a bed for the first time in days was irresistable, and we slept until dinner. Even then there was still doubt to whether we'd actually get out of bed.

My bug spray is in my bag, sitting at some airport somewhere in the world (to be delivered to Kili tomorrow, we hope), but I haven't noticed any mosquitos here anyway. My blue pill didn't upset my stomach as much today. Progress.

And now the sun is down and the sounds of a party or festival can be heard.

Until next time! KWAHERI!