What is it about chickens on buses? it was 6 am and we were on a most annoying bus; sealed windows and air conditioning, when the fresh window breezes are some of the saving graces on these buses. Plus i was thinking, what happens should we plunge over one of these bridges into the river, and can't crawl out the windows? The bus was filling and many had a chicken in hand, leading me to wonder- what is it about chickens? is it a portable lunch option, like carrying a lunch box? I had set out from Arusha a few days earlier- My first bus ride started at 5.30 am to arrive at 9.30 pm in Mbeya, on the border of Malawi. Spectacular landscape- baobob trees, monkeys, mountains, rivers, open stretches- By 8.00pm I had begun to have enough. We'd reached a check point of sorts in the middle of nowhere- my seat had begun to be cramped in any position and i was relieved we only had 1.5 hours to go. Then a uniformed youth troops through like something out of the Chinese Maoist army and says in Swahili - that's it, sleeping here tonight, continue in the morning. I choose not to pay attention to such nonsense. But my seat mate turns to me with a big grin,'he says we're sleeping here tonight!' "Where." "on the bus!" "On the bus." I look at him like he's crazy and go out to see the crowd of passengers arguing in the parking lot- 'lets pay whatever bribe needs to get paid here and move along', I am thinking. Next thing I am in a 'bar' at the side of this checkpoint with a couple other fellow passengers. "I'm very happy we're sleeping here tonight!" the woman says, "I'm absolutely single and was thinking how would I find accommodation after dark!" "But you're Tanzanian!" says the man, "we're all brothers and sisters- We help each other!" It was cold, and these two were proving too pollyanna-ish so i returned to my place on the bus. luckily my seat mate had exited, so i had two seats to stretch out onto. Most everyone else though had to make due with their one seat, and sit upright as they had been the past 15.5 hours. The bus had become one big slumber party. One person would say something and the whole bus would crack up. Someone else would say something and the whole bus cracks up. They were so good-spiritedly handling the situation once they'd realized that no amount of arguing would change this particular officer's view that buses need be off the road by 8.00 pm, not the usual 10.00pm, due to the hazard of traveling after dark, and he had taken possession of our driver's license. The officer could care a less that our bus was full of people of all ages, babies, children, ill people, old people- that we were so close to our destination, and that sleeping on the bus was hardship! One woman on the bus was in a high fever or crazy and belting out Church songs every so often, waking up the entire bus- again, my bus-mates take things in stride and after trying to quiet her start laughing-
Anyway, dawn came and we sped off to Mbeya, where our driver was now 3 hours late for the morning crowd waiting to set out to Arusha. On the way to Mbeya, the police stopped him for speeding.
Anyways. At another point in my travels, we landed off a crowded dala dala that had gone through the most beautiful countryside, staggered into mid morning small village and it was like Dr. Seuss; Circus-like African beat music blaring in the background and everyone, all shapes and sizes and ages going by on bicycles- the size of the bike having little correspondence with the size of the rider- the music making everyone seem on parade- I could have waited there all day, was loving it there- but a woman came by on her way to a funeral and decided to take on passengers for a bit of cash, so we hopped a ride with her to the next middle of nowhere town. I was loving these small towns and happy to linger. But soon enough we found transport on a motorcycle to take us to our destination- Matema, on lake malawi. for me it was a bit anti-climactic to arrive, beautiful mountain edged beach though it was, as the trip there was so much fun. oddly enough there was no fish to be found there, only rice and beans- no avocado, the occasional banana. and homemade beer made from fermented black tea and sugar-