A Quick Trip Through the Desert

I was very happy to take the bus from my friends site at 5 AM. I'm used to travelling at 4:15 AM, so I got to sleep in. Travel to the big town where we successfully (but without a turkey) celebrated Thanksgiving, was uneventful. I even got a bus that would take me to Arusha in enough time for me to catch my bus home the next day, but then...

Something was wrong with the radiator so that we had to stop in every village and refill the bus with water. Being in a desert, the water was sometimes very far away so we would just wait while the bus guys walked to the nearest well and then walked back. After about the fifth stop, they figured they should fix the problem and did. To make up time, the driver then gunned it through a large uninhabited stretch and consequently undid the fix by the time we returned to settled areas. After a few more stops at every village to get water, they decided to fix the radiator again and then take it easy. We'd still arrive in Arusha in one day, but it would be late.

Then we blew a tire. Then the radiator busted again. Then people got scared of being stuck in the woods in an area where some witch doctors can turn themselves into hyenas. In short, we decided to pull into a gas station, sleep in the bus, and continue in the morning. Unfortunately, all the hotels were full and no one in my row was lucky enough to get a room so I "slept" sitting up next to a very nice woman and her very cranky baby who alternately cried and squirted breast milk on my arm.

In the morning, the radiator only broke once. Then the transmission wouldn't catch so we had to get out and push the bus (something I'm used to doing in the mud so that wasn't too bad). Anyway, I missed my bus home so I'll get back to see my corn tomorrow and not today. Though I'm disgustingly sweaty, I'm healthy and I'll be OK after a good night's sleep.

You know how cranky I get when I don't get eight solid hours of sleep.