Birthday Adventure

My 24th birthday was definitely a wild ride. I'm also glad because I feel like I haven't had a good adventure to narrate on here for a while. Fortunately, my birthday was on Good Friday this year, so I had Friday and Monday off of work.

Festivities actually began on Thursday evening after work. Since I would be leaving on Friday morning to go to Mombasa, Jodie and Reuben (we all went to the same university and now we work together and share a house) decided to do a little birthday dinner that night. So they bought 20 chapatis from the shop near the office as well as some vegetables and we all cooked up some chapati burritos. Reuben also put on some macaroni and cheese that was an extra special treat. The neighbors came over and we enjoyed the feast and joked around for a while.

Then Jodie and I went to meet with a lawyer en route to Via-Via, which is the best Thursday night club in Arusha. The lawyer had just straightened out my immigration status, and we wound up spending an hour there talking business before going to Via-Via. First thing that Jodie and I did upon arriving at Via-Via was to order drinks and grab a table far enough from the music to sit down and talk business (I sadly have a remarkable track record of picking all the wrong settings for business discussions). Fortunately, it started raining soon, so Jodie and I decided that we had discussed enough business so we decided to find some shelter and wait out the storm. At that point, it was getting close to midnight, so the music started going and people started migrating to the dance floor, but I still wasn't feeling the music at that point (actually, I think I wasn't feeling the dance floor, since it was dominated by expats and had a very un-Tanzanian feel to it).

I had another beer and was surprised that I could feel its effects already. It was actually somewhat reassuring. I've scarcely drank for some time now, so my lack of tolerance for alcohol served to remind me why my bank account doesn't empty so quickly as some of my friends'. At that point, I moved to the dance floor and was definitely enjoying the music (there was a much better balance of Tanzanians and mzungus by this point). It also helped that Reuben showed up with our neighbors at that point (they had some major car issues en route to Via-Via). I had one more beer before deciding that I wanted to dance at the edge of the dance floor where I could enjoy the rain and music simultaneously.

At that point, it was approaching 2:00 and I needed to catch a 7 AM bus, so I decided to call it a night. Jodie also decided to pack it in, so we said good-bye to everyone else and went out to find a cab. I stopped Mic (our neighbor) and asked him for the keys to his house so that I could use my phone charger (his charger had become lost in our house, so I had left mine with him; losing stuff in our house is no mean feat, considering that it's 2.5 rooms). Jodie and I found a taxi outside where he gave us a really good price, so we agreed and went out. We both kinda knew that since drivers don't know where our house is, they will raise the price when they drop us off, so we always make sure they start really low so that we wind up near the fair price. This driver started lower than usual, but raised it a bit more. I thought about fighting, but with the heavy rain, I felt like he had earned the fare. Jodie and I ran to the door to avoid becoming further soaked. At that point, I realized that I didn't have Mic's keys. Most likely, they'd fallen out of my pocket when I was taking out the money to pay the driver and I hadn't heard it over the roar of the storm.

I sprinted after the taxi driver, but he was already gone. I didn't have his number and wasn't sure how I could track him down. I called Mic and told him to look for a black taxi and check the front seat to see if his keys were there. He called me two minutes later and said he was with the driver and found his keys. I couldn't believe that luck. I sighed a heavy sigh of relief before realizing that my phone battery was already dead, and I wouldn't be able to get his charger. I decided that sleep would cure everything, so I just threw my things in my backpack and started getting ready for bed when I saw Mic's charger. I decided to steal it for the weekend (well, trade for it since he had mine, and I wasn't sure he'd be back from Via-Via before I left for my bus) and I went to bed awash with relief.

I rolled out of bed at 6:10 AM and left the house without waking anyone else. I was impressed that it was still raining (it's definitely planting season over here) and threw my pajama pants over my shorts so that I wouldn't freeze on my way to the bus. I found my bus easily and only had to wait ten minutes before we left. It only took me five minutes to fall back to sleep. The conductor woke me about half an hour later to sell me my ticket. I paid groggily and went back to sleep. After another half hour, more passengers got on, and one of them told me that he had the ticked for the window seat, so I slid to the adjacent seat, but couldn't fall back asleep. I pulled out my book and started reading.

At the border, we picked up a few more passengers and it became clear that there was one more passenger than the number of seats, so I offered to stand. The new conductor (they switched shifts after entering Kenya) refused to hear of it. He asked for my seat number and I saw a young girl sitting in my seat. I was worried that he would send her off the bus, so I lied and told him I couldn't remember and tried to insist on taking the aisle. He demanded my ticket and saw that it didn't have a seat number, so he had to go and chase down the other conductor before I could react. It was hot and miserable at the border, but he found the conductor and returned to inform me where I was supposed to sit. Then he turned to the girl and asked for her ticket, which she produced (much to my relief) and found a woman in that seat. This went on for two more iterations before he came to a policeman sitting in a seat, and he hopped up bashfully and took his position in the aisle. In all this confusion, I realized that I had taken out money to exchange at the border and set it on my lap (the money-exchanger was about to arrive when the ticketing situation got under way) and forgotten about it. In all the shuffling, it had gotten lost (it was 50,000 Tsh or just over $35, which was the sum that I had intended to allow myself to spend on this trip). I asked around my seat and people mumbled that they hadn't seen anything. I accepted that I had only myself to blame for this and settled down, hoping the bus would pull out soon. After a bit more sitting, we were moving again.

The next bit of excitement was when we were an hour into Kenya (about 20 km from the village where I had taught in 2009) and I saw an elephant. I hadn't seen one since I'd arrived in Tanzania, and I realized that I still couldn't get excited about seeing one. Just after that, we saw a car broken down on the side of the road, 15 km from the nearest village (which was Maktau), so we stopped for 45 minutes and several men on the bus went to help the driver get his car running again. I kept on reading. As we drove through Maktau, I noticed that it was a lot greener than I remembered, which made me smile. My heart especially went out to the donkeys, cows and goats who had endured even worse food shortage than the villagers during my time there. We rode on down the miserable road, and I was thrilled when we pulled into Voi at 3:00, since it was my first opportunity to grab food all day (not a great selection, albeit, but at least something to put in my stomach and fight off the dehydration). As we pulled out of Mombasa, the conductor came up to me and handed me some money. He asked if this was the money I was looking for. I counted the 30,000 and told him that it was most of it, and thanked him profusely. I couldn't believe my luck; I had written off that money as a loss. I was glad as we made good time heading to Mombasa, and I alighted just before the station so that I could stretch my legs a bit.

My first stop was Nakumatt to bring some supplies for my birthday dinner. People seemed excited about nachos, so I sought out the supplies. I spent a while looking for seasoning, which I couldn't find before heading to the checkout counter (I also treated myself to a book, since I had only packed one). I thought I'd picked a line that would go quickly, but I felt uncomfortable as the woman in front of me (a British woman) berated her son the whole time and she kept stealing longing glances at the bottle of vodka in her cart. Then, as she was checking out, her rewards card made the computer malfunction. She then spent the next thirty minutes criticizing the clerk (although she admitted that she had been told multiple times to go get a new card at no charge) while he tried to get the system running again. I realized that my luck had run out (still, finding the keys and money earlier in the day was a good price for a long wait in the checkout line).

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time for this delay. The delay meant that I was leaving the supermarket after dark and setting out for the Likoni Ferry to get to my friend Jonathan's house (a Peace Corps Volunteer from my training group). The Likoni Ferry has lots of pickpockets, on top of several safety risks, and it's in one of the worst areas of Mombasa. I was glad I didn't have a big suitcase or anything. I decided not to show my anxiety, and everyone left me alone. Then I made it to Jonathan's house and was grateful to be welcomed by friendly faces. Everyone was worried about me since it was so late, and I basically collapsed and they all set out on the cooking (this was probably only the second time that I opted to sit out a PCV cooking adventure). They did a fantastic job with the nachos and we all caught up as we drank some wine (I realized that in that 24 hour span, I had consumed more alcohol than I had during the rest of 2010 combined). I told them several of my stories and they filled me in on some of the goings on with Peace Corps since I had left.

It was a small gathering, but there was one unfamiliar face. There was a girl named Mariel who was not with Peace Corps but is working on a Rural Internet Kiosk project. I was definitely interested in that work, and it was nice to talk to people working on lots of different projects. It was also nice to joke about the monkeys who were running around outside the house. At that point, we were all feeling pretty exhausted (combined effect of a food coma from the massive quantity of nachos and from the wine), so we actually turned in at a reasonable hour.

I'm actually just going to bullet point the rest of the weekend, since I feel like this post is already pretty long.

Saturday
* Mariel made grilled cheeses for brunch on Saturday morning. Delicious. I even did a little work, even though I'd sworn to myself that I'd put off work tasks until after the weekend.
* Went to the beach on South Coast. It was nice to sit and hang out with people. I met a bunch of interesting people there. I even gave out my business card to a few people. Yikes, it feels weird giving out business cards.
* I got into an intense religious debate with a Kenyan. I think that he and I both enjoyed the discussion. Unfortunately, everone else at the table felt really awkward as we went on.
* I met a Ph.D. student doing research on how non-profits in the area are using internet media in their models. I tried to convince her to look at for-profit models as well (i.e. GCS), but to no avail.
* I went into the Indian Ocean, although I opted not to swim. Sad day.
* Went to a supermarket where the line moved much more smoothly. Phew.
* Helped cook up beef teriyaki for dinner. Mariel was surprised when she learned that any of the guys could cook. We told her that we were perfectly happy while she assumed we were ignorant and did all the cooking.

Sunday/Monday
* I played half a match of cribbage with a volunteer. Man, I haven't played that game in ages. I'm pretty rusty.
* Headed to Mombasa in the afternoon (I really didn't observe Easter at all), unfortunately, the matatu driver dumped me off 2 miles from where I told him to leave me, so I had to walk back and got to town just in time to catch one of the last matatus to Voi.
* I stayed in Voi Sunday night so I could get a later start on Monday. Unfortunately, the ticket seller wouldn't budge on the price, and I nearly missed the bus arguing, so I overpaid by about a third for my ticket (I think I could've gotten a better fare leaving from Mombasa) and was left with 18 Kenya shillings (about 25 cents) in case of emergency. Mercifully, it was mostly uneventful.
* The bus stopped in Maktau, and my friend Mwachofi who runs the cafe saw me and came on board to greet me.
* The bus broke down at about the same point where we saw the dead car on the trip to Mombasa. Fortunately, another bus from the same company passed 30 minutes later, so most of us crammed into that one.
* Made it back to Arusha in good time and I felt much more relaxed than I had for a little while.

I am really grateful to Jonathan for being such a wonderful host all weekend. I also want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes on my blog, on facebook and over email. I had a great birthday. Also, I wanted to post about Ijumaa (my cousin Dave won the contest for naming my dog with his suggestion of Friday=Ijumaa a la Robinson Crusoe), and I even had pictures of him sitting on my lap (he's way too big to be a lap dog, but he doesn't know that) to post, but I'll have to do that a bit later.

In any case, I'm really excited about being 24, I am entering this year with a lot of optimism.