Safari Njema

I have never been able to keep a diary or journal; half a dozen failed attempts sit in my closet with a measly two or three entries to show for themselves before I lost interest. However, I am currently sitting in my beautiful dining room of my beautiful apartment in a beautiful country, and I feel the need to push myself to reflect–when will I ever have an experience like this again? So, I am upping the stakes by turning my journal into a blog post in the hopes that viewership will motivate me to write. I am challenging myself to post at least once a week for the twelve weeks that I am here. Feels doable. With a large mug of masala tea in my hand and having just blasted Africa by Toto, I am ready to start.

For me, getting ready to leave was the hard part, but leaving was easy. The 48 hours that led up to my departure felt hectic and stressful. Last-minute items popped up that I perhaps should have thought about weeks prior; I moved my belongings out of 1301 and into Lisa and Steve’s (somehow finding space for it all despite Joe sharing the room), I moved Daario’s things to Maggie’s place and deep-cleaned for the last (and first?) time at 1301. I should have dropped Daario off earlier in the week to  make sure he acclimated to Maggie’s place, but I couldn’t do it–I kept needing one more night of Daar-man snuggles. We went for one last walk to last us until fall, and then I drugged him up with anti-anxiety treats before I left. I probably needed some of those too. Once I got to the airport, my stress dissipated; whatever I forgot was forgotten and whatever I left unfinished will be waiting for me in August. It was time to start enjoying the journey.

Three connections and a full 24 hours later, I arrived in Dar Es Salaam. The trip was fairly uneventful. I found some pleasure in that the flight attendants all spoke to me in German, thinking that I was European. Points for dressing in a monochromatic wardrobe. I was upgraded to business class for the last leg of the trip, a lengthy 59-minute flight, but I celebrated this small win–my legs were unbearably cramped at this point. Miraji, my contracted taxi driver, was waiting for me outside of the airport with a handmade sign that he had clearly put effort into–large colorful blue bubble letters spelled my name. He immediately recognized me from a photo Ken had sent and gave me a big hug. Miraji brought me to a hotel in Dar for the night and we agreed to meet at 7 the next morning to start our drive to Iringa.

I greatly enjoyed my drive with Miraji. After exchanging some details about our respective families, we drove in comfortable silence, with me occasionally asking what a word was in Swahili. The formal way to greet someone in Tanzania is to say “Habari za leo?” meaning literally “What is the news of the day?” The response is always “Nzuri.” “Good.” I asked him if anyone ever says that they are not good, and he explained that only if someone is sick and dying do they respond “Mbaya.” Later on our drive, we were stopped at a police checkpoint and Miraji’s car was inspected. After passing the inspection, we continued our drive and Miraji laughed, saying that the police were so corrupt. They knew they could not pull him over for speeding, so they were hoping he did not have a fire extinguisher in his car or the correct paperwork so they could either threaten him with a ticket or solicit a bribe. He said all of this with a smile on his face and no resentment in his voice, so I was left wondering if he is truly so carefree or if it is the Tanzanian culture to pretend everything is nzuri.

At some point during the drive, I dozed off and was shocked to wake up seeing monkeys on the road. We were passing through a national park, Mikumi. We later passed by two elephants and I happened to look out the window in time to see a lioness casually stalking through the grass by the side of the road. Unreal. We made it to Iringa in a little under 12 hours and April was waiting to greet us and show me around my apartment. I got a couple of FaceTimes in to my parents and Carrie and decided to make it an early night after unpacking. I fell asleep under my mosquito net canopy to the sound of roosters crowing and wild dogs howling, with the same thought rattling around in my mind: I can’t believe this will be my life for the next 3 months.