Now, I do like to keep this blog positive but it would be remiss of me to not report on the mission it took to get here. I will try to punch it out quickly but here goes. We were told that our ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam left at 4pm when it actually left at 3:30. When the oversight was noticed we had 5 minutes to frantically bolt to the ferry terminal in our beach attire (very inappropriate for public transport in the largely muslim country for our knees and shoulders being provocatively on show). They were fighting over whether to bar us when we arrived but we successfuly did our most charming pursuasive dance and got on. If we had missed this 1hr 45 mins fast ferry it would have meant an 8 hr overnight ferry... so PHEW is an understatement!
Once in Dar we went to bed early because we had a 5am pickup to take us, with pre-bought tickets, to the bus station. Of course that didn't turn up so it was a mad dash to the terminal where we were instead put on a crummy bus for the next 10 hours. My knees touched the seat in front, and the reclined backreast was about 15cms in front of my face. But we made it back to Moshi in once piece with our indefatiguable spirits in tact as always. As my airport transfer was arriving at 1am we decided there was no point going to bed so we went out to dinner for our last night. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my friends. We reminisced over the memories we've maade, mystery meats we've eaten, things we've done. We laughed about our nicknames and how we got them. Then we went to a local nightspot (that i wish we'd discovered sooner as it was a wonderfully relaxed beer garden). My last song in Tanzania was hilariously also our theme song for the trip - Shakira's world cup anthem "This time for Africa". And so I said goodbye to my friends and jumped in a cab back to the house to meet my transfer.
But of course this did not arrive either... and without going into too much detail, the "Team Leader" at the house - not superstars Michaela or Jess - but a grumpy old man who despises Mzugus, refused to help me. I just needed him to call me a cab or follow-up on my no-show driver, but I was told through the door that it was not his problem. I wandered around the compound close to tears for about 40 minutes till my friends thankfully arrived home, in shock to find me still at the gate. They had to pay their cabbie an inflated rate of $30USD of their own money to taken me to the airport in his seat-beltless, broken headlight, no petrol-mobile. A white-knuckle ride to say the least!
Anyway I got there in one piece, only to find the airline had no booking for me. After an anxious half hour they booked me on and sent me into the departures terminal to wait. And wait. And wait. The 15 or so other passengers and I had no-one to ask as our 3:30am departure time came and went. My family was meant to be meeting me in Addis Ababa at 6:30 and I had no way to tell them I was delayed. We finally boarded at 5am. After falling asleep on the plane I was woken to a warm stewardess' welcome to "Dar Es Salaam"!! What!! Did I get on the wrong plane? Why was I back in a city I had just travelled 10 hours on a bus to leave? When I saw all the other passengers with the same horrified look I realised this was not my mistake. Turns out the airline had re-routed us without telling us.
So we waited an hour in Dar and finally set off for Addis. The early morning flight was beautiful - I passed a completely visible Kilimanjaro on my left and arrived in Addis to the beautiful vista i've described above. I was 4 hours late, and of course my poor family was no-where in sight. When I got inside the gate I was shuffled into a line for passengers transferring to Frankfurt and it was a difficult conversation to communicate I was actually where I needed to be. It was even more difficult to get my bags back as they too had been transferred on to the Frankfurt plane! I went to the currency exchange then, but they wouldn't change my Tanzanian Shillings. I could not find a working phone to call my family, and was told there was no internet in the airport. A nice-looking man saw my distress and offered to help me make a call. $100 Kenyan Birr later he ran off with my money and the last of my reslove. The tears flowed as I thought I was going to be stranded... so close yet so far.
Meanwhile my poor family was beside themselves as I hadn't turned up. They logged onto my facebook only to find a message hoping I was ok "after the nightmare last night" and naturally assumed the worst. A missing persons report was filed in Tanzania as they frantically tried to find out what had happened to me. Finally a legitimately nice man helped me make a call and I told them I was here... safe and sound but a bit shaken.
When I saw Lily and Lyndsay coming in to get me I burst into tears like a big baby!
Anyway, all drama aside, Ethiopia is absolutely beautiful. Lyndsay and Sandy's house is built up on a hill and overlooks the whole city. Lily and I went out on our first night and it was so much fun. It was quite surreal hearing Justin Beiber and Beyonce in a club in Addis Ababa! We went to the British Embassy compound and played with the horses, met the lovely Kenyan ambassador and her gorgeous daughters, and have been making all sorts of exciting plans.
Updates of Zanzibar to follow, but in the meantime check out my new pics of Teaching in Tanzania:
Love to my baby Harvey Bear. I noticed not all of my last post got through and it looked like I forgot him. As if!!
xxx
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