Getting to Lushto, etc.

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Monday night in Moshi
Our night was pretty good. I worked on the computer hoping to post things before we left, but Bill fell asleep with his clothes on, and I didn't have the heart to wake him. The fan was on high speed, and so I took the chance that we didn't need the mosquito net, so we were reasonably cool for the night. Bill got 9 hours and I slept for 8.

We tried to carry our packs on our backs, but they are really not designed for that, but fortunately, the road was smooth enough that we could roll them along. Made the bus okay.

I tried the doxycycline again, and thought that it was negatively affecting me in the bus, however, I now feel that I just have an ordinary cold. We are in a good enough place to recover...no electricity, no food, just birds chirping and children playing sports nearby.

The bus trip was reasonable...we had assigned seats and while they did stop to pick up additional passengers, they only took people if they had a place to sit. I knew that it was going to be a 5 hour drive, so thought about going to the toilet before we left. ...there wasn't time.

So, for the next t hours, I tried to not think. Now my ankles are swollen, so I need another night's rest.

At every town bus station, the hawkers hurried over to our bus windows, very few actually sold anything. We made a list of what was attractively displayed: watches, flashlight, Valentine hearts on a stick, bangles, rings, bottle openers, nail clippers, mirrors, cell phone covers, toy buses, water pistols, sun glasses, etc. We tried to get picture.

Then out came HUGE loaves of bread, mostly unsliced. People were buying two at a time. It also seems to be mango season, although most are still green.

The terrain is unrelentingly dry red dust. Every once in awhile, we would see goats grazing, and I am sure that they found even one inch of green that dared break the ground. Sometimes, we would go through more prosperous-looking areas, plants in rows, but mostly, just dry red dust. These more prosperous villages almost always also had a church building of some kind.

Of course, we were surrounded by boys when the bus stopped, finally. The guide book said to beware of unauthorized touts, so I stood on the corer with the luggage, and Bill headed off to the Tourist office. We ended up looking at two places: the Sun Lodge and St. Benedict's. We did bargain at St. Benedict's and helped with an English lesson. This place is pretty basic, and then later on our walk, we saw the ELCT (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania) and are wondering if we made a mistake. It looks crisp and clean, but perhaps more money? We'll check tonight because that cafe seems to actually have food to offer.

we are up in the mountains, really in the middle of nowhere, although half way to Dar es Salaam. There are several places to access the Internet, however, the rolling blackouts have struck again. The mismanagement of Lake Victoria along with the drought are bringing several countries to their knees. Folks are pretty resigned to lack of electricity, not even generally complaining...IF we have power during the day, then we won't in the night. But, if we go without during the day, then we will likely get it about 11 tonight. Great! I wouldn't mind being stuck here if we could catch up on our writing, etc. And, somehow, I arrived without a single thing to read! I'd work on Dearborn stuff, but we can't depend on charging the laptop!

WOW, the power seems to have come back on, so perhaps we can actually post stuff.

Why things don't always work:

In Kampala, the first thing that we noticed, apart from the pipes leaking with the increased water pressure, is that the water never really drained from the bathtub because the tub was installed slanting away from the drain. So, we had to help the water along.

We've noticed that generally, shower curtains are placed on the outside of the drain, so that water is guaranteed to flow onto the bathroom floor. Faucets are often placed so that our hands can barely get enough water. Last night, the soap dish slanted out, so that the bar of soap constantly landed on the floor.
Bill thinks that this happens because the installers are not the end users. If the tile person, or the plumber goes home every evening to a shanty with perhaps only one bucket of water, no wonder he doesn't have a clue as to how to install anything.

One just constantly adapts, gets along.
Well, Bill is downloading our camera, so we can post some more pictures.

LATER:
the Lutherans didn’t serve beer, and took more than an hour to cook and serve dinner…in part, because they served a group of pastors who were having a conference, instead. Then, we went back to St. Benedicts for a shower before bed and that is when we found out that we had NO WATER!!! I went to bed in a foul mood…it all got better the next day, so stay tuned.

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Photos

Coffee Posters
Little did we know that we would be touring the farm that supplies the Coffee Shop

Bougainvillea Bush
This is obviously an old bush and the sisters just built the fence around it.

Our Moshi Hotel
It wasn't the greatest, but I was able to get my project emailed inbetween power outages.