Øyvinds blog: Long distance bus travels will be killing me some day

As you can see from the title of this post, it will be one with a little bit complaining, but it will also be about what I miss, but most of all about the few things that I actually did the last four or five days.

Since I had difficulties updating my blog in Zambia, I will continue where the last one ended. However, first I need to apologise to my two or three patient and loyal readers that I can't get access to the internet more often at the moment, and it will probably continue like this. Not every country can be like Malawi... And by the way, I will make a summary about the five countries I am visiting when I return to Norway. Can't really stop until I've told you what I liked and did not like about this travel.

The last days in Zambia... I had an appointment with Ephraim and his wife, so I was just waiting at the hostel most of the afternoon. Ephraim is one of the African men who really know how to keep to a schedule. He picked me up at the hostel at the exact time that we initially planned, and we drove back to his house. It was a bumpy ride, but not really unexpected. I had the exact same experience in Accra some six years ago. The roads in the residential areas are so bad it makes the route of Paris-Roubaix in cycling look like the Autobahn. Unless you have a really good 4WD you will get problems at some time. At Ephraim's we just memorized about the old days in Trondheim and our class, and had some discussions at different levels. We had a nice dinner, and then they took me to a night club that was actually quite cool with Congolese music. Afterwards we drove through the Times Square area of Lusaka, which is really a shopping centre for the richer people. It was a nice evening.

The next day was actually the day I managed to update my blog, and the day when I put myself in the terrible position of having to take a long distance bus lasting for 32 hours. I was fortunate enough to find a good seat, but what does that help when we're talking about 32 hours. Well, it was not the worst bus ride of my life, but certainly the longest. I never thought I'd say this again, but I miss travelling by train...

During this long travel it kind of hit me that the reason why I am now travelling in East Africa, is that I am missing Ghana. I miss the people, and would love to see them all again sometime, at least most of them. I miss the city of Cape Coast which now is officially ranked as my favourite city. That just changed the last week. But even more than Ghana, I miss my bed and some other things that I can't find here while travelling.

Anyway, back to the travelling, I was lucky to be sitting next to a nice Zambian fellow on the way to Dar Es Salaam. We had some nice conversations, and he did not complain about me being super sized and taking far too much space. We reached Dar at 12:30 in the night. Not a good time to come to a city like that. I grabbed the first taxi I could find, but all the hostels on my list had no vacant rooms. They took me to Dar City Palace Hotel, which was fine enough. The next day I decided to only stay two nights in Dar. It is a chaotic city, not resembling the rest of the Africa I know. It is much more like a mix of Indian, Arabic and African. Actually quite interesting, but I had problems communicating in Dar. Everybody speaks Swahili, and some speaks really bad English. It was kind of like being back in Ouagadougou, where I could not speak to anyone because nobody understood me. I sometimes had to ask myself what is wrong with the taxi drivers, but it is a big and difficult city to travel in, and also we had the language barrier. Actually, I was in a taxi for more than one hour, just because this driver did not know where my hotel were, and would not let me off until we found it. I did actually beg to get out of his car. And the next day, when going to the bus station to catch the bus to Nairobi, I repeatedly told my driver that it was not the Ubungo station, but he managed to leave me there anyway.

The ride to Nairobi was better, but at least 15 hours. I did actually see both Mount Meru and Kilimanjaro, but couldn't take any pictures. I was in Nairobi at around 9 in the evening on Tuesday, and had to wait for some thirty minutes for Stephen to find me in River Road. He took me to a super market, bought a take away pizza, and we left for Nuru Africa. I have my own room. Yesterday, we talked a little bit about what we can do to formalize the collaboration between Nuru and Soltun. He took me to a traditional dance show that was quite interesting, and I did not really do much besides that. The power was cut at 8 in the evening, and even though I am getting used to this happening in this part of Africa, it is apparently not common here.

I have told you before, but I have not seen the sun very often during this trip. It is not a big surprise, but that means I am still very pale. Will try to tan a little bit on the roof of my building here at Nuru, but that implies that there actually is sunshine that can change my terribly white skin. I will also go to the embassy on Friday to talk about Nuru and Soltun, and leaves Kenya for Uganda on Monday. I am going to spend the rest of my time in Africa in the pearl of the continent.

I miss you!

Just some few pictures from the last week:

At Ephraims place:)