Train Travel

We boarded the train in Tanzania somewhere around 9:30pm, after which we just sat in our compartment and sweated. I thought, Well, 36 hours of this in a confined space with no showering should be just dandy. 

home sweet home for the next little while.

However, we propped the window open, and once we actually began to move around 11:00pm, we got a breeze going on that made the heat pretty bearable. We went straight to sleep.

The next day we began to experience good ol' train life at its best. 

We used the toilet (such a good experience--especially as the train is jolting from side to side, water is sloshing all over the floor, and you're trying not to touch anything). 

We played cards. 

Just passing the time yo.

We ate lots of rice, served with chicken breasts that once belonged to very skinny chickens. 

We also did lots of looking out the window.

I don't know what I was expecting to see--but I had what I knew to be a very cliche picture of Africa in my head--and I was expecting to see not that. Well, I saw just that.  

Grass huts, barefoot children, women carrying enormous bundles on their head, banana trees, breathtaking sunsets, and tall, tall grass. 

train ride in a nutshell.

Beautiful scenery. We settled in for the night and I honestly thought, "This is not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be."

At one of the train stops, people jumped on the train and barged into compartments, trying to exchange money and sell things. It startled the crap out of me. Apparently, the lock was broken on our door. I went from sleeping to having some stranger open the door to our compartment, close it behind him, and try to barter. Ashley exchanged some money, but yelled at him to be quiet.

The second time it happened, she sat up in bed, pointed a finger, and said very sharply, "You! Out! Now!" 

He got out. 

We started to settle back down as the train began to move away from that particular station. A while later, somebody knocked at our compartment door. We were stopped again. 

"I am very sorry, but this is the last stop."

"What?"

The train worker informed us that the train could take us no further, due to the worker strikes in Zambia. We were at the last stop in Tanzania- Mbaya.

The train was returning to Dar es Salaam that night. 

It was a little after 11:00pm, almost exactly 24 hours after our journey had begun. 

We got off and didn't know where to go. Some of the Africans were refusing to get off the train until they got a refund. Others went inside to find the ticketmaster. 

We walked inside the train station. It was full of people sleeping. Everywhere. On the chairs, on their luggage, on the floor.

We walked back outside, put our luggage on the ground, and sat down. Time to figure out Plan B.