{"id":22886,"date":"2022-09-19T13:00:59","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=22886"},"modified":"2022-12-08T21:56:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T02:56:57","slug":"it-wasnt-exactly-a-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=22886","title":{"rendered":"It Wasn’t Exactly A Bus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Lou Burton posting from Arusha, Tanzania<\/em>\u2013 Confusion. Inside Namanga’s Border Control Office, confusion reigned in signs and lines; blurred. Somebody pushed me out of one line into another, pulled me maybe. I had everything in hand: passport, Tanzanian visa, Yellow Fever Card, COVID documents. Cane in the other hand, leaning, wobbly. At the first window a man took my passport and simply walked away with it! Another push, someone grabbed my arm, another line. The gang was split, everyone confused, different lines; I was pushed again, to the front of a line, the counter. Another man, smiling at me. \u201cYou look confused,\u201d he said. \u201cAre you enjoying your visit?\u201d \u201cAnd you look very handsome,\u201d I replied, \u201cand not confused at all. So maybe you can tell me what is going on.\u201d This made him laugh. I can\u2019t tell you what happened next, but somehow everything I needed was stamped, signed, recorded, and my passport back in my possession. I staggered out of the room, a young man took my arm, oh yes, our driver, the one taking us to Arusha, on the big bus. \u201cI need a restroom first,\u201d I said. He led me around the corner to a room with open door;\u00a0 three stalls, one stall with a hole-in-the-floor design; the next with a toilet but no door; the third with a door but a toilet with no seat. No paper anywhere. I chose the stall with the door; walked out with a wet spot on the back side of my pants. The driver led me towards our new vehicle; not a spacious bus, but a minivan! While we were inside our luggage was moved from the 4x4s; luggage for nine people now in a van, barely space for nine to \"\"<\/a>sit! Mike and Lois were standing there; we scrambled into the front seats. \u201cFirst come!\u201d we said, unwilling to politely stuff ourselves in the back row. Mike took the front seat and busied himself on his phone. Lois and I crowded together; our luggage and backpacks squashed between our knees and the driver\u2019s seatback. \u201cMy pants are wet\u201d I whispered. We started laughing then; the restroom, the crowd, the confusion; the Hukana Matata<\/em> sign across the dash. “No worries!” we laughed. The door of the van was open; two laughing women visible; a crowd gathered; arms reached inside with beaded goods, \u201cTen Dollar! Ten Dollar! Ten Dollar!\u201d We stopped laughing; shook our heads, NO, please NO. NO. NO. Otis and Venita arrived; Otis attempted to negotiate a trade as Venita urged him to get in the van, NOW! Ed and Maureen and Judy arrived; slipped past the insistent vendoring crowd. Where was Rick? Where was Abdi? Still inside. Rick had his visa on his phone, but he didn\u2019t take the paper copy in. Abdi helped; persuading the stick-by-the-rules governmental staff to print it from the phone<\/em>; persuading them not to charge Rick $6 per page for the six pages it took, slowly, slowly (pole, pole<\/em>). Then finally, everyone inside; goodbye to Abdi; the door of our \u201cnot exactly a bus\u201d was closed. We headed for Arusha.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Arusha, Tanzania <\/strong>has a population of more than 400,000; another 300,000+ in the area surrounding. On the eastern edge of the Great Rift Valley, it is near Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Lake Manyara National Park, Olduvai Gorge, Tarangire National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Meru in the Arusha National Park. At an elevation of 4,600 feet, Arusha’s climate is relatively cool and dry. Colleges and universities located here include the National College of Tourism, about which we will hear more this week. We reached our lunch stop and driver-vehicle switching place at noon; the Arusha Coffee Lodge, on a working coffee plantation. Here’s this 70-mile leg of today’s journey.<\/p>\n

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Next Post: Getting Our Bearings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Garden Luncheon, Arusha Coffee Lodge https:\/\/www.elewanacollection.com\/arusha-coffee-lodge\/dining<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Lou Burton posting from Arusha, Tanzania\u2013 Confusion. Inside Namanga’s Border Control Office, confusion reigned in signs and lines; blurred. Somebody pushed me out of one line into another, pulled me maybe. I had everything in hand: passport, Tanzanian visa, Yellow Fever Card, COVID documents. Cane in the other hand, leaning, wobbly. At the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4318,4319],"tags":[4510,4511,4512,4344],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22886"}],"version-history":[{"count":95,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23085,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions\/23085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}