Headed to Madisi Friday 5/29

Waking up was extremely easy, after all it was 6:00pm back in Denver. I packed my things and met everyone in the small hotel lobby. We crammed into another small van and drove a short ways away to the nearby bus depot. Turns out there’s still some traffic and a decent amount of people out at this time of morning! We waited for a little while in the lobby and then packed our bags onto the bus. It was all very chaotic as a lot of people were getting on and all of our luggage had to be marked with stickers to make sure it didn’t end up getting removed at the wrong stop!

The bus was decently nice and even had WiFi which was epic! Our tickets were for the first six seats in the front so I got to see out the windshield! Again, the driving here is crazy. Our bus driver would constantly be passing slow moving traffic and barely dodging oncoming traffic. For some reason, there were a TON of vehicles on the road at 4:00am. Another thing that’s different is honking here as it’s like a conversation between vehicles so it’s hard to catch some sleep. The infrastructure is poor which means the entire trip was on a two lane highway that wasn’t maintained well. It was frightening to watch everything happen! We would often just barely make it out of the way of oncoming traffic and abruptly cutting off everyone behind us.

As the sun began to rise and the more west we travelled, the more Tanzanian countryside we got to see. Eli and I sat next to each other and got to know each other more and talked all about Mines. Our first stop was at a random large hotel in the middle of nowhere. There were several concrete statues of giraffes, elephants, and zebras for some reason. Andrew purchased us bread and embe for breakfast! Embe is Swahili for mango and represents a thick mango drink that is amazing!

A third of the way through the drive the bus’s TVs began playing a mix of Swahili music videos, the Grammys, and Tanzanian reality television. An interesting mix to say the least, but entertaining.

Around halfway through the drive we passed through a game preserve and got to see some wildlife! Mostly giraffes, monkeys, and gazelles but it was so cool to see these animals outside of the zoo. I couldn’t get very good pictures but I tried my best!

Our second stop was at a random market and turned out to be our last time to use the restroom before we made it to Mafinga (where the bus let us off for the final time); I wish I had taken the opportunity when I had it! We climbed a lot of elevation throughout the whole trip. I didn’t know Tanzania had such elevation changes. At one point we were going up a steep pass and driving into oncoming traffic! When we finally made it to Mafinga (a decent sized town), we packed all of our bags into one car and hopped into another car to go to a late lunch at a local restaurant. I once again had chicken and rice and were off to Madisi!

From Mafinga, we had about an hour and a half left in our journey. We were now on dirt roads which were HORRIBLY bumpy. If you think the washboards are bad in the US, you would be in for quite a surprise here. The entire car would shake vigorously or send us flying upwards to the ceiling. The roads meant we had to travel extremely slow and added more time onto our already very long trip. The countryside we were driving through was gorgeous rolling hills covered in forests.

Eventually the forests turned into a carpet of tea plants and other farms. We finally made it to Madisi and VST (Village Schools Tanzania) just before sunset. The entire school is surrounded by a forest that was only planted 20 years ago! The size of these trees would take 50+ years back in the US. To answer the question everyone, including myself were waiting for, it is cool/cold here in Tanzania. To me and the others, the temperature here feels very nice but to the locals it is considered quite cold. My phone says lows in the mid 50s and highs in the low 70s. I was told that this will be the warmest it will be for our entire trip, only getting colder and colder as we get closer to August. The temperature does make sense as the elevation of Madisi is around 5,800 - 6,000ft above sea level! I’m basically in Colorado! I didn’t bring any clothes to specifically keep me warm so I hope I’m okay!

We were given a warm welcome and a brief introduction. Steve and Sarah Vinton (directors, not owners of VST) brought us to a training room where we left our bag and put our valuables in the safe (there went my phone for several days). Here we grabbed some bottled water, a small torch with batteries, a pair of flip flops, toilet paper (Tanzanians don’t use toilet paper, but for us Americans it's a nice commodity), and a sleeping bag. Turns out there was a list for packing and it was never sent to me. We were supposed to bring some bedding so I was thankful to receive some here. The biggest thing we were told is about the wonderful hospitality Tanzanians have. It is considered a blessing to have a guest come into their home and will make sure everything is perfect for them. They will spare no expense to spoil us and little did I know that that would be an understatement!

Soon enough we were sent out and to our hosts for dinner! I was the only one to not go with a family. My host was a young man named Jonah (Yo-nuh), but we call him Paul (Jonathan also goes by Jonah and there can only be one person who can have a specific name). He’s pretty tall and works for the IT department for VSI. His English is good, but it is often hard to understand him so I’m always trying my best to listen as hard as I can. In Swahili the “l” sound is uncommon and results in most pronouncing it as an “r”. This can make it hard to determine some words, but I got used to it quickly. We walked down to his house with only my backpack! The whole walk he was very welcoming and insisted on taking my bag down to the house. The view from the house is awesome, nothing but rainforest. In Tanzania there is very little authentic and old jungle left as it was almost entirely cut down by Europeans; however there’s a small strip of it left right outside of the row houses. There’s also no animals down here which means that a rooster won’t wake you up at 4:00am which is what everyone else has experienced! The house is very modest. A main room, five small bedrooms, and two bathrooms (simple pit toilets). There is electricity however it’s not the most reliable (there are often brief power outages). He showed me my room which had two beds, one full sized bed and one twin. Being a guest I got the whole room to myself!

Paul then showed me his room and his biggest interests; music. Just recently Paul bought a very nice speaker system which he listens to his music very loud! Fortunately, the music is very fun to listen to and I don’t mind the sound. Paul seems to be the only one who lives in the house permanently. Andrew, the one who picked us up, was there as well, but only to sleep here temporarily (his home is in Bukimau). Paul also put on a movie while listening to music and trying to talk with me. It was a random YouTube movie about bear sized killer wasps in Central America; very special! I watched the movie, listened to the music, and let Paul do his work on his small Chromebook. He is a very busy guy. Safe to say we didn’t have too productive of a conversation (it was nice to relax).

Eventually it was dinner time (they eat very late here, dinner happens after 7:00pm most nights) and had rice, beans, and a small portion of meat. Meat is not the most common at meals unlike the US and is considered a privilege! The next door neighbor, Farista, cooked us dinner as it is very rare for a man to cook in Tanzanian culture. Once we finished dinner, we went back to Paul’s room and listened to a lot more music and got to know each other. When he asked about my favorite drink I thought it was just a little small talk, but when I said Fanta he jumped right up and went to the local shop. 20 minutes later he was there with a bottle of Embe (the shop had just closed) that was amazing.

Paul made sure that everything was good and that I was comfortable all of the time. I am so thankful for his hospitality and realize what a sacrifice it is to allow me to stay at his home. Even though I was 9,000 miles from Colorado, I felt at home. After a while I excused myself and went to bed where I learned a special part of Tanzanian culture… It is a sign of hospitality to play music very loud all night long. It signifies that they are proud and that they have the capacity to play music they love. It comes from a time when music only came from the radio and batteries had to be purchased. When a guest came, expensive new batteries would be purchased and music would be played showing that they have the means and honor to make such a purchase for the guest. Although the bass shook the walls all night, it became a soothing buzz and I fell right asleep.