We woke up this morning to the sound of muslim prayers at 5 in the morning so that we could catch a bus to Arusha. It was pitch black and I went to turn on the lights but they didn’t work so we fumbled around in darkness showering, doing our hair and even putting on makeup.  I had no idea how I looked (Zoe looked fabulous) as I walked down the stairs but at least I was clean. Light is very important so that you can see how you look walking out in the morning.

We met Moshi and Steven in the lobby of our hotel and drove out to the bus station. There were hundreds of buses all around us and people yelling in Swahili. One second Moshi was waiting for someone that he had ordered tickets from and the next second someone ran up to us grabbed out bags and ran. Moshi ran behind them and Zoe and I ran behind Moshi and Steven stayed back. I thought that someone had stolen our bags and we were chasing them but what really happened is the tickets he reserved for the 7am bus left early because it was full and there was another one that was just pulling out another friend had called him to say hop on he had saved some seats. We got on the bus as it was pulling away (buses do not waits her even with one foot in and one foot out).

It is an experience to take the bus here and it’s not something that you can do unless you speak swahili so we were the only tourists on the entire bus. At every stop a swarm of people head to the windows and hold up peanuts, fruits, chips and drinks for the passengers to buy. You hold your money out the window do the exchange.

The ride was 8 hours so after awhile that became out new normal. We arrived tired and ready for a shower in Ausha.