Bus to Arusha

I was allowed on the bus despite them not having my booking, but was given the worst seat with no curtain to shade the sun, and no opening window to allow the breeze, so was a boil in the bag Kate for most of the 6 hour journey.

The journey was pretty amazing, when I could keep my eyes open. They are rebuilding the road, by hand, for the whole stretch between N and A so we travelled along a dirt track to the side. At some points there would be a glistening newly paved road 10m away but we weren't allowed on, so at points I wished I had worn my sports bra. I did manage to get some shut eye, though I'm wondering how, and if I would actually be able to sleep in an active tumble dryer.

When I wasn't doing a nodding dog impression, the sights were pretty spectacular. They are approaching the end of rainy season so all is lush and green, and most of the way was decorated with white flowers.
It's a Saturday so I think the children only had morning lessons, and many none at all and they were in abundance the whole way, playing with a ball, herding cattle or just randomly sitting, shooting the breeze. Many had a friendly wave for us, which is impressive given they must see at least 20 shuttle buses each day.
Adults were a mix of Maasai and Kenyon then Tanzanian people, men and women, all working or resting in the shade. The men were either road building, to which an impressive number of man hours was devoted, or bartering and selling goods.
The women were washing clothes, herding or carrying goods, often accompanied by tiny children.
Though I did see one woman driving one of the scarce pieces of machinery involved in the road building – striking emancipation, I thought.

The border crossing was surprisingly little hassle, as has been everything I have done so far. At first glance Tanzania is much the same as Kenya, though after a couple of hours it did start to show greater signs of poverty, with a higher number of dwellings being mud huts and the standard of clothing decreasing.

This all changed on entering Arusha, though, which seems to be a thriving town of quite a large size. Enterprise is in full swing in Arusha and it seems you can buy pretty much anything you want without leaving your car. My Mum would kill to visit one of the garden centres they have, they set up along about half a mile and sell all kinds of exotic, beautiful plants. I was chatting to Hallelujah later on and he told me that the government gives them the land and watering facilities for free as they create such a nice environment along the roadside. They leave the plants there all the time, he says that no one steals them, as they would have no one to sell them to. Thefts are only of phones, laptops, etc.

I got picked up by Asa and brought to my homestay with Mama Lydia. It's lovely! My room has a little sink, a four poster bed (complete with mossie net) and (what I always wanted as a little girl) a dressing table with a little seat and a mirror, as well as a desk and a wardrobe.

I am beginning to think that Africa is not a quiet place. Admittedly I have only been here for 2 days, but I don't think there has been a quiet second in that time.

On the first night I went for dinner with Michelle (who runs Shika) who has been over for a week with her husband Rob trying to set up the new after school centre, and also Asa who runs the charity from Arusha, her boyfriend David and an American girl called Jackie.

We went to a Thai restaurant which is quite newly opened, which is quite rare. It was in a lodge on top of a hill and you could see the lights of Arusha below. The food was pretty good, though everyone thought the bill was fairly extortionate, it came to about 25,000 Tsh each, about £14. I think that may be the most expensive meal I will ever have in Arusha.

We then went on to a Karaoke bar, (not my choice!) which was interesting, people singing badly is one thing, but people singing badly when they don't the language is something else entirely, almost painful when at high volumes.
It was good though as it is a bar mixed with all sorts of people. Then David drove us home – my house is up a track about 100m long, but the worst road I have seen in my entire life, David has an old Landrover, but I don't know how the normal cars get up there, but they do manage. Given that it is dangerous at night – I have no choice other than getting a taxi – apparently taxis are the main expense here – food and drinks are very cheap!