A Roundabout in Dodoma

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  Dodoma, Tanzania
Saturday, January 19, 2008

I decided to leave Moshi to visit friends I traveled with to Zanzibar.  They are working at an ophanage in Mwanza, Tanzania (on the shores of Lake Victoria).  Because things are bad in Kenya I chose not to go the usual route of Moshi-Nairobi-Mwanza.  Instead I traveled to Dodoma in central Tanzania.  It was in Dodoma my journey got interesting.  I wasn't surprised however because you always hear these stories and I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened to me.

We leave from the bus station in Dodoma only 30 minutes behind schedual which is to be expected.  Then on the way out of town we smell something burning. We had officially broken down at one of the busiest roundabouts in Dodoma.  We file off and some people start getting upset and shouting at the bus driver and conductor.  This is all in Kiswahili so I have no idea what they are saying.  I figure that if the Africans are getting upset, when they are used to transportation that is notoriously bad, maybe this situation is out of the norm

My chariot to disaster

.
 
We sit for 2 hours at the side of the road.  The bus company sends mechanics to fix the bus.  A representative from the company comes to reassure the passengers that the bus will be fixed and they will be underway soon.  Police officers keep everyone under control and direct traffic around our bus.  Women walk by selling bananas and mangos from baskets on their heads. 
 
After the bus is fixed we are all loaded onto the bus. We are driven to the police station where the passengers place a formal complaint.  They either want another bus or a refund.  After 2 hours of talking the passengers get neither and we are loaded up on the bus again.
 
Now we finally depart Dodoma almost 5 hours behind schedule.  After leaving Dodoma things actually proceed pretty smoothly until almost halfway into the drive (just after the point I start congratulating myself on making it this far) our fan belt shreds.  It is dusk by now and we spend 45 minutes at the side of the road replacing the fan belt in the glow of the mechanics cell phone.
 
We then drive another 2 hours until we reach a police road block

bus

.  These road blocks are set up primarily because they don't want people driving at night.  There is high risk of accidents and dangerous driving at night.  It then occurs to me that we are expected to sleep on the bus on the side of the road.  And trust me these seats don't recline!  Every seat on the bus was filled.  I was able to find everything up until this point humorous but after this point things were no longer funny.  I probably slept 3 hours that night.
 
The next morning about 5 the police removed the road block and we drove the remaining 3 hours to Mwanza.  Arriving only 14 hours late!!!  It was an adventure to say the least.  I can finally cross that experience off my list!
 
I was lucky that the bus was half-full of students going home for a school break.  I was actually able to make friends with one of them who explained what was going on.  It was such a comfort to know that some people on the bus spoke English.

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