funny day......

so i wanted to add more details to the day we spent going to that mall.... a cultural experience really, if thats what you can call it! it was the saturday we had our free day and we went to that mall.
the morning started off as any other, we got to the village by dala dala and proceeded to find our next bus into the city. well we were walking and i was a little ahead of the two other girls so i stopped to wait. i was standing waiting and all of sudden i see a shovel full of gravel flying towards me. i jumped out of the way just as the gravel hit the ground. i looked up to see about six guys in the back of this gravel truck laughing. i was not laughing. i was nearly hit in the head by huge rocks! the continued laughing and giving me 'thumbs up' signs. i just walked away, what are you to do in that situation?

so after the gravel incident we found the proper bus and got on.... well about five minutes later everyone on the bus started getting off. one gentlemen told us that there was something wrong with the bus. so we got off and waited for a bit in the crowd and hot sun before getting a little frustrated and then looked for a cab. the problem with the cabs, like any third world nation it is always a bargaining system to decide on a price. when finding a cab we were automatically surrounded by men trying to get us into their taxi's. during all chaos one man who actually spoke english came to me and said 'where do you want to go?' i told him and he said 'okay 40 000' i said 'we can't pay that much' so he asked how much we could afford and i said '15 000' he looked at me and said '20 000' i looked at the girls and we agreed. so we climbed in and drove off and after an hour of sitting in the cab through traffic we got to our destination.

the day was nice, looking through a supermarket we almost went crazy with all the food we haven't seen in months! there was a bookshop and coffee shop upstairs that nearly felt like being in a mini chapters! for dinner we enjoyed subway and then decided to get a cab home.

getting a cab wasn't a problem and he agreed to the same price we paid coming here. so after the hour drive to the village where we'd catch our bus home we ended up having to get out and walk because the traffic was so bad and we were in a standstill. we thought if we wait in this traffic any longer we'll be getting home to late and the sun was already starting to set. so we got out, paid and started our walk to catch the bus. we waited among a crowd for any bus marked with our destination. we knew by now it was going to be a fight to get on. usually there is a lot of shoving and pushing and foot stepping on to get a place, and this time was no exception. a bus pulled near and in a slow motion fashion people started walking over, then moved to a fast pace walk then before you knew it they were running. well i was prepared when i saw the bus and i started running, i yelled at the girls behind me 'run!' so we bolted it to the bus. the door was still closed and the man inside who operates the door was pointing saying he was going to pull up to the bus's regular stop. well that didn't fly with the this particular group of Tanzanians because everyone, including us three white girls were pressed against the bus door waiting. so he opened them and released the mob! the men are the worst, they push and elbow and jump on each other and over each other to get on. i had one hand on the door frame but wasn't fully prepared to get a limb ripped off to get a seat on the bus so we kinda stood back a bit but still managed to get stepped on quite a fair bit. Naomi was offered by one man to be 'thrown' through the window! yes he was nearly ready to pick her up and put her through the window when she motioned to her skirt and gave a whistle! implying, 'if i go through that window my skirt will go up and that is not good!' he laughed and stopped trying to pick her up. after realizing the bus was filling up and we still were not on i decided it was time for business and started doing things the African way, elbowing and shoving and squeezing my way on that bus. one of the women started yelling 'sukuma' which means 'push' which is what we say to the labouring women all the time, we thought that was pretty funny so us three started yelling 'sukuma! sukuma!' and pushing our way on... and we made it! we were jammed in there, with every seat full and some women on each others laps and when i tried to count the people standing in the aisle i got lost around forty! so yes very full. i was leaning against some guys shoulder and Linsday was practically in his lap!

so what we thought was success, we made it on the bus! and even got a 'good job' from one of the Tanzanian ladies tell us we were "Tanzanian's now" the bus was slow to move and once it made it out of the village it stopped completely. we were told there was an accident up ahead and all traffic was stopped. and was it ever. we got out and decided to walk.... anything was better than staying on that bus. so we walked, alongside all the other people who couldn't get to their destinations any other way. we got many yell's at us. apparently three white girls were quite the site to see walking along side the road. we walked for half hour and the sun went down. traffic had started moving so we tried to hale down a bus to pick us up. one finally did stop for us but it had the most creepiest man running it. (all busses have a driver and a man that opens the door and takes your money) he was angry and trying to make us pay double for the ride. we refused and he tried to kick us out of the moving vehicle. we weren't sure if he was joking with us or not because the rest of the bus were smirking but he was so angry. we finally got to our stop after he attempted marrying me off to one of the other men he called his brother. we were thankful to be home and i'm certain it will go down as one of our most eventful days here in Tanzania!