Seat belts? Are we in 'Merica?

I appreciated the pushy young Tanzanian woman next to me on the bus telling me to put my seatbelt on every time I sat back down in my seat. First of all, I was baffled at the fact that there were seat belts on any bus, let alone this particular one. At this moment in time, I was so thankful for that strap across my lap, and the mama that kept making sure I put it on, because we were winding through the mountains as if the speedometer wasn’t working (which, it very well may not have). Mostly, speedometers are of no importance here in Tanzania. Although, it is somewhat of a non-issue, because most of the roads are too crappy to speed down anyway.

The Mtwara crew (me, plus three others in my class) traveled to Iringa after our IST. Iringa was nothing really too special, except that it was surrounded by mountains. There was the normal safi (good) food there, pizza, ice cream, burgers, etc. At sunset, a few of us went on a hike up “Pride Rock” in the rain to an outlook that overlooked the entire city. One highlight: on the ride to and from Dar-Iringa, the bus goes right through Mikumi National Park. I saw giraffes, elephants, antelope, water buffalo, and baboons!! It was awesome! We were going way too fast to see anything up close, but it was still cool. The elephants were my favorite, standing in a group of five, swinging their trunks to-and-fro. The giraffes were super close to the road and eating the leaves from the highest branches of a tree. Their height was immense! Even though I’ve seen me some African animals, I’m still hungry for more. I do need to go on some sort of safari... Takers anyone?

Today, we just got a room at our normal guesti after enduring the bumpy bus ride from Dar to Masasi in the dirty south. Today wasn’t actually too bad. First of all, the fact that we got to book our own seats made a world of difference. We sat near the front, had a bit more shoulder room, and didn’t get nearly as much air on the big bumps as before. Also, we didn’t get stuck in the mud or a flat tire. We arrived for our five minute break at the “lunch” spot (a few stands of fried food and bananas), a good three hours earlier than on our first trip. Today our ride only took nine hours as opposed to the 15 our first time. No complaints here!

At training one of the older volunteers, Lisa, mentioned with a smirk that Peace Corps is like camping. Every day, all day. She’s exactly right. Good thing I love camping! I, daily, need to: use some sort of pit latrine, bring soap and toilet paper to the bathrooms, wear sandals in the shower, pretend that it hasn’t been five days since I’ve last showered, and sleep on a semi-uncomfortable surface.

At the lesser expensive, not-so-creepy guesti we stay at in Dar (the YMCA), it’s always a gamble as to whether or not the water is working. Normally, being dirty for one more day/night isn’t a big deal, but when you’ve been on a bus all day long, you kind of want to rinse off the grime. However, it’s not so bad once you train your mind not to care so much and to go with the flow. So much of living here is being flexible, which I’m learning, slowly but surely.