Out of Africa, Part 7: Road Trip

Wednesday and Thursday, July 22 and 23
Planning done, suitcases packed, and backpacks in tow, the five of us left Zanzibar island on Wednesday enroute for the mainland in preparation for what we called our "road trip." Jason, Annikah, Jim and I headed to the ferry port and once again had the opportunity to ride the "puke boat" to Dar es Salaam.

Roxanne would travel over by air, one of the special priviledges of being a nauseous expectant mom! We were sure to take our Dramamine ahead of time, and it really did the trick - sort of lulled us to sleep and prevented us from succumbing to motion sickness. We reached Dar about lunchtime, hired a cab, and headed to the guest house (with a Subway stop on the way for lunch). This is one of the places that Roxanne dreams about when craving something "western" while on the island. Dropped off the suitcases, picked up the van at the guest house, and drove to the airport to pick up Roxanne. We all enjoyed western style burgers and fries at Spur, another one of JaRox's fav places on the mainland. Up early on Thursday, we piled into the van to begin our nine hour trip to Arusha. I think this road trip was definitely one of our most difficult (but interesting) Survivor challenges. Have I already mentioned the challenges of driving in Africa??? First is driving Britain-style- steering wheel on the right; driving on the left. But that's just the beginning. The roads are narrow and bumpy; and even in the country, people will be on foot, on bicycles carrying huge loads, or guiding overloaded cow/donkey carts. I don't remember seeing too many signs along the road, such as "no passing," or yellow lines painted on the road to signify that; or speed limit signs. They may have been there, but I was riding in the back of the van constantly interacting with Annikah, so maybe I just didn't notice. No need for "slow down" or lower speed limit signs as you enter a village, either, because numerous speed bumps are in place so you have no choice. And it's not just one or two - each village had an entire series of 2 - 3 speed bumps at a time. No wonder Roxanne's stomach was lurching. One other item lacking on this trip was rest areas (with bathrooms) and/or gas stations with bathrooms. In one little village we stopped at a decent-looking hotel, bought a soda, and asked the location of the bathrooms. They were not what I had hoped for - here I am, armed with my TP, not so sure whether I wanted to aim for the hole in the ground. (There are brick platforms on either side of the hole for your feet; you can see that the walls, especially near the floor, do not look the cleanest . . . )Other times we opted for using the bushes along the way. If there were no bushes, no worry, just use the open air, as seen in this picture. When you gotta go, you gotta go! After this trip, I was known to say that I'll never again complain about having to use a porta-potty!

In each village the people had something to sell. We saw lots of oranges for sale and many beautiful fresh vegetables. We stopped for a bag of veggies to supplement the other food Jason and Roxanne had brought to eat while they stayed in their little banda (cottage) for a few days while we would be on safari.

As always, the children were curious about the wazungus, and would crowd around and pose for pictures.

Jim enjoyed spotting anything Pepsi along the way.

And village after village displayed what we would call a backward and primitive way of life. Homes were really just huts, yards no more than the dirt the huts were built on; and always, litter and garbage was strewn everywhere.

We were thankful to arrive safely at our destination - the little banda where Jason, Roxanne, and Annikah would relax for a few days, and where all of us would spend this night. The evening was cool - we all put on sweatshirts and jeans and settled in for a night of rest.