#karagwe

Having been given details of my Tanzanian counterpart as well as the location of my host home in Karagwe, I was nervous but excited and longing to be there. The not so exciting part? Leaving the hotel at 3am on Sunday 14th December to begin a 10hr long road trip, by bus.

After carrying my 23kg suitcase and 10kg hand luggage down 3 flights of stairs from my room on the 3rd floor to the entrance of the hotel (yes, there were no lifts), we waited impatiently for the bus to arrive so we could continue our sleep. Realising that we would miss breakfast, the hotel gave us each a packed breakfast. Was it continental? No chance. Inside individual small black plastic bags were 2 slices of plain white bread, a boiled egg and a bottle of water. I took it gratefully knowing it was better than nothing at all. I then went to meet the team waiting outside the hotel entrance and it was the first time I saw the night sky - it was starry, beautiful and mesmerising. I couldn’t take my eyes away… but I was soon forced to when the shirty driver arrived (about 50m down the road) and wanted us to come quickly otherwise he would leave us because the bus was a public one with only the rear seats reserved for our group. As I dragged my luggage to it I knew that this journey would troublesome, and I wasn’t wrong.

We entered the bus from what I thought was the luggage compartment underneath but in fact it was the door and was also the same one they used to load our bags onto the front part of the bus! The organisation of it all was a mess. Without trying to think of the situation I sat quietly and then the driver set off hurriedly and I realised the drive would be rough and uneasy so I fastened my seat belt and closed my eyes. 10 minutes later we stopped. We had arrived at the bus station where, without any explanation, we were being told to get off, remove our luggage and move onto another bus. Everything felt disorganised, the road surface was dusty, bumpy and sandy littered with rubbish and there were people waiting everywhere to board the bus we were coming off of making it impossible to have the space needed to manoeuvre our belongings. I was moody and annoyed (largely due to my lack of sleep) and felt really uncomfortable not knowing why this was happening. As I approached the bus we were being moved to I hoped it was a private one but no such luck. It was another public one but in a much worse condition - the windows would not open easily and the one I sat next to was boarded up with some flimsy wood and secured with duct tape. Within minutes of leaving I closed my eyes tightly, said a prayer, and desperately tried to fall asleep. The bus departed and travelled at what felt like 90mph on an uneven surface. Eventually we arrived at the port where we boarded our ferry to cross Lake Victoria. It was the first time I used a squat toilet and before I even went inside I saw a lizard crawl up the ceiling. I held my breath and did my business and came out feeling like I had overcome my fear!