On the road...

...direct to you from Beira, Mozambique! I've been backpacking south since the 15th and am now only one short (well 8 hours, so relatively short) bus ride away from Vilankulos, my final destination (where hopefully I can catch up on my sleep and see this coastline all the guidebooks are raving about.) I started out with an overnight bus from Dar es Salaam to Lilongwe, Malawi which set the tone for everything to follow...I wish I had taken a picture of it. They were about 20 people over the number of seats (thank god, I had 2/3 of a seat- our set of two held 3 people) so people were sitting in the aisles, on each other's laps, etc. This wouldn't have been such a big deal, but there was also a ridiculous amount of luggage so there wasn't an aisle- just a long row of boxes, suitcases, bags, etc. You had to climb over them to get to your seats and were piled so high that the people sitting on top of them risked bumping their heads on the ceiling when we hit rough terrain. I was in the back right, and was lucky enough to be next to a window. There were 3 tires under my seat, a large parcel in my arms, a little girl on half of my lap (imagine- 5 years old- almost 40 hours on a bus- no toys- and not a single complain, no whining, no crying...she smiled the whole way. if her mother had asked me to adopt her at the end I would have said yes) and a ladies' head on my knees (her seat was broken so it tended to rest on my legs.) It was hilarious in how packed it was; even the other passengers were joking with me about how this was ''african transportation'' and wasn't I lucky to get the authentic experience? The best was when it started raining and my window wouldn't close...yep, 11 hours with wet knickers is always a good thing :) I'm giving it a hard time here, but it was an amazing trip- I saw 3 elephants, gazelles, baboons, and 5 different distinct biomes in the first day alone! Unfortunately, we arrived at the border a mere 15 minutes late, so instead of moving on into Malawi, we had to wait until the next day to continue our journey. This was a bit confusing to me and more than a little overwhelming; being the only white person and a woman as well, I was overwhelmed with hustlers when I stepped off the bus at the border and had to retreat quickly back inside. Most of the people were wandering off to try to find lodging...it was either that or spend the night on the bus. I think I'll always remember that pivotal moment; it was pitch black, I knew it was unsafe to stay in the bus, but walking around in the dark with my pack in an area I didn't know was well-neigh suicidal. I froze...staring out the window at the rain that was just starting up again, thinking that maybe I should've looked into flights after all (I know, I'm a wuss...I admit it) when all of a sudden an angel in the form of a brassy, opinionated, Tanzanian woman named Veronica climbed over the baggage next to me- "you know you're going to get eaten up in here- mosquitos's just love it in these buses...they be buzzin' in your ears, gettin' in your clothes...and if you're lucky it'll just be mosquitos'..." she went on and on, speaking in English, half to herself and half to me. Having labored through elementary kiswahili all day, I was giddy to have someone to direct questions to; she had the smart look of a young Dar es Salaam professional, and the easy confidence of someone who travels often. After a long series of questions (me: "when do we leave in the morning?" veronica: "ah! we'll be lucky if we get out of here by noon!") she told me she was catching a car to the next town over to meet her brother/ get lodging and would I like to come along? It was a really hard decision...you just never know who to trust and while she didn't put any pressure on me one way or the other, the idea of going with a complete stranger to look for lodging seemed a bit foolhardy. Still, people get drugged on buses all the time- a fellow VSO vol. (Chris) woke up in the hospital after such an experience- he'd been left naked in the desert and stripped of all his belongings. So I gambled on my gut feeling and went with her ... and everything turned out great!- better than great as it turned out that her brother was the head border immigration official (definitely a good person to know when you're going to have to talk your way back in carrying faxed work visa papers.) We had several drinks, dinner, told each other lots of stories and by the time we made it back to our rooms (beautiful, brand new, ensuite singles with water and electricity) we were getting along famously- exchanging phone numbers and e-mails like long-lost friends. And that was the start- it's kinda like hanging with the popular kids in high school, once you make one friend, you're in with the rest. I spent the entire rest of the trip laughing with the other young, single Tanzanian women (even the 9 hour wait at the border for customs to check all the baggage was fun.) Ah, I couldn't ask for a better start to the trip in regards to getting in touch with local Tanzania, and I was downright sorry to say goodbye to them when we reached Lilongwe...but more about that soon! kt