Journey from hell

Habari!

As some of you might have seen "I promise to never ever complain about Dutch public transport again. After a delay of so far two days.... and who knows how many more... :-/ Stuck in Malawi"
I stick to that promise for sure!

So on tuesday I was supposed to go from Nkhata Bay (Malawi) to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) a 22 hour bus ride if all goes according to plan. Yes, planning in Afrika that's a challange. So i paid (way to much) in advance, that was what I was supposed to do according to the guy who works for the hostel.

Tuesday evening everything packed and ready to go. Before getting into a taxi I was told that the bus broke down and wouldn't leave today. So the next day the bus would leave. That can happen.

Wednesday it was pooring down rain the taxi arrived 20 minutes late, so I was stressing over being late, untill I saw how little the driver could see with the rain, the fogged window, the poor streetlights and the bad roads. Then I was only stressed about getting there alive (how priority's can change... ;-) )
I arrived alive and a little bit late. But that didn't matter since the bus wasn't fixed... and the bua didn't go amywhere. This time he didn't bother to tell me beforehand. "Tomorrow I'll call you when the bus arives, should be around 11.00. The bus leaves Lilongwe at 9.00 and the bus takes about 4 hours" I guess you don't need to have studied rocket science to figure out his math skilss arn't that good.
After some heavy discussions and demanding my money back (that never happend...) I needed to find a place to sleep and found a cheap hostel in this town.

Thursday I'm early at the bus station. I got a free ride and it still rained... nothing else to do.
At the station I waited longggg and I saw how fish lays in the rain for hours before anyone bothers to put some ice on top of them and to cover them up. I saw a 'lady' who didn't liked the disabled homeless person in front of her shop so after a few slaps with sticks she trows a bucket of water top of him. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. But as the only white person I thought I wasn't the right person to say anything about it. (Isn't it easy to make excuses.. :-/ )
The bus guy tells me that the bus will be here at 13.00. I told him I wanted my money back, but he didn't had the money anymore.... So what choise did I have? I waited a bit longer.
A guy comes over and asks me 100 of questions... and then tells me "I have two wives, I like divercity and both of them are black... so a white wife would be nice..." My response "You have two wives already? I'm a very jealous person I can't share my man with anyone!" He kept trying though.
One friendly guy who could speak good English kept me sane. He helped a lot translating and with treatinge like a human being. (Others were mainly staring)

Around 13.15 the bus guy starts to sweat... still no bus around. He told me I needed to get in a minibus, so I would at least cross borders. After some more heavy arguing and not getting any money back I descided to get on the minibus so I could cross borders.
The busride was beautiful with Lake Malawi on one side and waterfalls, moutains and small villages on the other side. Occasionaly some boys wanting to make money with an improvised roadblock. Sometimes soldiers with real barriers they open by pulling some rope strings. Glad I can see a lot from the busses of the counties!
Umfortunatly I arrived at the border at 20.00 that's only 2 hours to late to cross this border. A group of guys surrouding me trying to help, from "This Mzungu has to stay with at the polic" and "Mzungu, you have to stay at my place".

Since I didn't had any money left I survived on 2 mandazi's (oliebollen) and old bread with butter. I stopped at a guesthouse and expected that the buscompany would pay for a room... unfortunatly they didn't and there wasn't a room left either. The brother of a guy who worked for the buscompany didn't understand much English, but he did understand that I couldn't sleep outside in the pooring rain. So he invited me to his place with his wife and 4 month old baby.

So walked with him to a tiny village walked in the dark in the pooring rain for 20 min. To arrive at his place, I slept in my sleepingback on his floor with at least one big cockroach and a leaking roof. So I was 'sleeping' untill 5am to cross borders and to catch a bus. Some misunderstanding I guess, maybe he didn't understand...
Me "so I arrive 20.00 today?"
He "yes"
Me "I only need to catch one bus?"
He "yes"
It are two busses, 5 hours of waiting, finally I could get money for real food at 12.00 and I'll arrive around 6.00 am in Dar es Salaam.
This packed bus, small space doesn't give much comfort to sleep. After many nights without any proper sleep... At least I sit next to a nice guy who likes to talk.

I have never been called "Mzungu" as often as in the last 24 hours. It has been an insane day!

I liked Malawi a lot this last 4 weeks, but I would have liked it better if it were 3,5 weeks. ;-)

Now I'm in Tanzania, so I have to get my dusty Swahili skills back and improve a bit more.

Asanti sana for reading my complains.
Next story will be happier I hope!!