TRAVEL ADVENTURES

The last time I wrote about how friendly people are. Well, I have now come to the conclusion that some people are just too friendly….

On my way to Kigoma last month, I was traveling by myself; this was both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.  While waiting by road, I met Alex, a refugee from Burundi; he had been walking from Mishamo (the refugee camp near to our fieldsite) and was heading to Uvinza.  He stopped when he saw me and begin to ask me many questions, of course all of them in Swahili.  I actually managed to have a decent conversation with him in Swahili with only a few misunderstandings.  After he found out where I was from he would utter the phrase, “America! Huh!”, every so often at random times throughout the conversation.  And then he asked about my religion, another question I get asked by many people here.  I did my best to explain that I was Jewish (amazingly that was in the English-Swahili dictionary I had) and after that his new phrase to utter became, “Hamna Jesus?” (“You have no Jesus?”). People stopping me by the road or in town to ask me questions, in both Swahili and English, is commonplace here in Tanzania.  Most of the time I do not mind stopping and talking; it is only when they start asking for money that I begin to get annoyed. But, this is not the friendliness that I was referring to; it seems that people here really love foreigners…

Alex and I got a ride in the cab of a petrol truck (for you Americans, that’s a gasoline truck).  About halfway to Uvinza the driver and Alex began to argue over Alex not paying for the ride.  I was desperately trying to stay out of it and say that he was not my friend, that I didn’t even know him before that day.  The driver finally said it was okay for Alex to ride for free, but things were tense the rest of the way.  Of course we had to stop and fix a bolt that had fallen off of the truck at one point; no trip is complete without some kind of mechanical issue.  When got to Uvinza I was told we were not going all the way to Kigoma that day, so I ate dinner, exchanged phone numbers with the truck driver, and agreed to meet at 7am the next morning.  I then walked to the house UPP has in Uvinza to stay the night.  This was of course after making it clear to the driver that he and his assistant could not come with me.

That night I received a text message from the driver that said, “I LOVE YOU SO MARCH” (i.e. “I love you so much”). UH-OH. What do I do now? Option 1: wake up early to try and get a seat on the dala-dala (mini-bus) that leaves at 5am (but this bus is usually overstuffed and fills up early) or option 2: ignore the text message and meet the driver and his assistant as planned in morning. I went for option 2.  I ignored the message, went to bed, and awoke to find that little tiny ants had gotten into my backpack; unfortunately this was not the first time this has happened. Luckily I had enough time to get them out, clean my stuff, and still get to town in time to meet the driver. I got into the truck and we started on our way to Kigoma.

I was a bit on edge the whole trip, but there were no problems until about halfway to Kigoma (what is it about halfway points???).  The assistant got out to sell some of the petrol, so I was left alone with the driver who turned to me and asked if I had paid yet.  When I said no, he responded with (in broken English), “for you free”.  UH-OH (again).  Of course I politely refused and insisted I could pay (in my bad Swahili).  He then said, “Samantha, I love you so much”.  Awkward smile.  Then he said, “you, me, sleep kigoma”.  NOT GOOD.  Thankfully my previous time spent in Uganda had taught me that as a single woman traveling alone it was best to say you were married and wear a ring (which I put on before every trip to town), so I was prepared and responded with “nope, I can’t, I’m married (point to ring)”.  The name, job, and country of origin of my “husband” often changes each time someone asks me about him, but it is definitely beneficial to have a “husband” to talk about whenever someone starts getting a little too friendly.

At this point, I’m thinking, “great, I still have a few hours left with this guy. Do I get out and try and hitch a ride with someone else or take my chances and stay here?” I didn’t have much time to decide, because just then the other guy came back and we were on our way.  Thankfully I had no problems the rest of the way and the driver acted as if that conversation had never happened.  When we got to Kigoma, I got out of the truck and the assistant asked me to pay.  Now for the not so friendly side of some people here...

I gave him the agreed upon 15,000 TZ shillings (about 10 US dollars) at which point he said it’s 30,000 shillings. Now, normally to get a ride to Uvinza and then to Kigoma totals between 10,000 and 14,000 shillings, so there was no way I was paying more than the 15, 000 shillings.  And I told him all this the best that I could in Swahili.  So he says “okay,” but then looks at the 15,000 shillings in his hand and says, “bado elfu tano” (not yet 5,000).  So I said, “I don’t think so; that’s 15,000).  He smirked and put the money in his pocket.  Sorry dude, my Swahili might not be great, but I know enough now to know when you are trying to swindle me.  Thankfully there was a taxi nearby that I got into right then and directed to my hotel (thankful that the driver did not know where I was staying!).

So, everything turned out okay, but I definitely do not want to have that experience again! Although, I will admit that I was proud of myself for making it safely from camp to Kigoma (and back) all on my own.