Tanzania and Arapha

On the bus!

Taking four bus rides and a couple of taxis across two countries definitely wasn't the most direct route back to Eldoret after leaving Iraq, but it seemed like a good idea at the time! Since I was already traveling through Nairobi, it was a good chance to take a quick trip down to Tanzania to visit my sponsored child with Compassion International.


Just a few hours after arriving in Nairobi at 3am on Monday morning, I met up with Mety and we got on a bus to Tanzania! Five hours later, we reached Arusha and switched buses (easier than it sounds!)  We crammed into two very narrow seats on a much more crowded bus, with every seat filled and people standing all the way down the aisle. We drove about 3 hours and stopped at a police checkpoint where our conductor was promptly arrested. The driver went after him, and he got arrested too. There was a lot of commotion as most of the other passengers also offloaded and went to campaign for their release. We were in the middle of nowhere, with no other buses or taxis in sight, so Mety and I just stayed in our seats and waited. After about an hour, someone who knew someone who called a friend of a friend of some guy on our bus somehow got our driver and his cohort out of jail and we continued on our way. In total, it took us 6 and half hours to reach Singida - we were very tired when we finally rolled in at 9:30pm!



Thankfully, our $15 hotel in Singida turned out to be pretty nice, with a very clean room, soft beds and nice restaurant. No hot water, but after a good night's sleep and free breakfast we couldn't complain! Cold water gets the dirt off, it just doesn't melt soap very well.

Mety's Tree

We met our Compassion host, Graim, at the hotel and then traveled to the project site. Arapha wasn't there, so we didn't spend long at the site before traveling to her home. We did stay long enough to collect seeds from a beautiful red flowering tree on the project grounds that Graim said they call the "Christmas Tree". Mety was completely in love with it, so we're hoping the seeds will grow in Kenya! The rest of our time in Tanzania, anytime we saw that tree we called it "Mety's tree!"



When we reached Arapha's house, Arapha had left to fetch water, so I first met her older sister, then was led into the bedroom to meet her mom. The day before I arrived, Arapha's mom had accidentally lit her clothes on fire while cooking, and she sustained 2nd and 3rd degree burns from neck to thigh on her right side. She was lying on the single bed, in significant pain anytime she tried to move. It felt very weird to crowd into the room and sit down, but that's what we did.
I asked what kind of treatment she was receiving and was relieved to learn she is being attended by a private doctor who is coming to the house twice a day to give her injections of antibiotics and pain medicine, and dress her burns. She said she was excited to see me and was surprised that I had really come. She said when the Compassion staff first told her I was coming all they way to Singida to visit, she didn't believe them! I gave her a gift I brought of assorted spices from Istanbul, which seemed very inadequate given the situation, but it was all I had with me at the time. When Arapha arrived, we all prayed together for her mom's healing, and then Mety and I took her into town for lunch. I had chicken and fries, Arapha had fries, eggs, and roasted goat!
We talked over lunch, which was a bit difficult as Arapha doesn't know any English and I can't make sentences in Swahili!  When we first started talking, it was quite difficult because anytime I asked a question, Graim would answer it himself and leave Arapha out completely. I finally learned to say "can you please ask her...." before each question. I learned that she has completed her primary schooling and has just taken her final exams. She hasn't received the results yet, and in Tanzania, students' education ends at the primary level unless they achieve a fairly high score.
At 13, Arapha has already decided not to continue her schooling and instead wants to learn a trade and become a tailor. She plans to go live with her older sister while she attends a tailoring school, which Graim said can still be paid for under my Compassion sponsorship.

Me with Arapha and Graim (our translator)

We wanted to leave Singida by 1:30pm to try and make it back to Arusha before dark, so after lunch we went straight to the bus stage and bought return tickets. I was told that I could not give any cash gift toward Arapha's mother's care, so we went to a kiosk to buy food and household items for Arapha to take home. We were told our bus was coming in "three minutes" so we really rushed the poor kiosk guys - rice! sugar! toilet paper! salt! bread! soap! - and then we still waited almost half an hour for the bus to arrive! I guess that was three Tanzanian minutes.

Singida Bus Stage

We said goodbye and then crammed back onto another bus for the long journey back to Arusha! It was shorter this time, because no one got arrested, so we arrived in Arusha just before dark and then spent the night in another hotel - this one had hot water! 

The next day, we had an early breakfast and then transferred to another shuttle bus for the trek back to Nairobi. The scenery is really beautiful and the shuttle was very comfortable, especially compared to the cramped Tanzania buses, so the ride was quite nice! Once we arrived in Nairobi, we relaxed at Java House Cafe, shopped a little bit at the Maasai market outside, then got on an evening flight back to Eldoret. 

A view of Open Arms Village and the nearby community from the plane window! (Open Arms is on left side of the photo)

When we finally reached Mety's house, we cooked pancakes for dinner and then went straight to bed! 

It does feel really good to be home. =)