21st of February, 2018.
I had to walk more than I expected. Luckily, there is some traffic so when I reach a bridge, the cars have to slow down which is perfect for me! I pick-up stops and there are three men inside again. They look nice though and they are going to Kisumu, in Kenya.
They are originally from Muanza, Tanzania, and they are travelling for work. Major it is a Marine Engineer with his helper and friend Ali and his older driver, now retired, a gentle man in his seventy’s.
We pass through Jinja, an old port town, just near to the boarder.
I am really hungry because I just had some pieces of pineapple back in Kampala. I am a bit ashamed of asking them to stop the car so I can by something to eat. But when I finally do (now I do not remember if it is before or after the border), Major gently stops the car and buy some Chapatis and sodas to everybody.
At the boarder, everything it is quick and fine. The most organized boarder I’ve been until now. I am so afraid because I had spent one more day than than I supposed to in Uganda but everything ended up fine.
Major is so surprised and pride at the same time about my travels. He kindest keep saying that if he and Ali tried to do that for one week they would die. They are really nice.
In Kisumu, Major will meet a friend and we all go to have lunch together. He invites me and the place we go to it is very nice. It is the first time I eat a veggie curry with coconut milk. But as all the fancy places, the portion it is small and expensive.
After lunch, they drop me in an area where the bus companies are. Since it is already five o’clock, the best decision, I figure, it is to take the an over night bus to Nairobi because then, once in there in the morning, I could just walk to exit of the town and keep my way to Tsavo.
I stay in the place where the bus would leave the whole time. The girl who sold me the ticket is very nice. I walk away just to buy a soap. The dinner I have in one of the small shops just beside: some rice, beans, French fries and salad. I also get some donnuts in the same place because I could not find my cakes.
Everything changes when I say ‘hi’ to Faith as soon as I get in the bus. She is very nice and enthusiastic but at the same time very different of me. She is from Kisumo but is living in Nairobi right now. She has a transport car and sometimes work with fashion, like a top model. When I ask her what she wants more she answered “be successful” . She like my way of travelling but also is very concerned about the hitchhiking. She also wants to travel a lot and to do it alone, although, she is a little scared to start. I give her a lot of advices and try to motivate her to do it. What she keeping repeat more it is how she could not live without her phone.
Faith invite me to stay with her. I could sleep and take a rest for that day and then next morning I could leave better. At the end I decided stay for more one day and we would go for a walk in Nairobi.
We watch “The Ghost and the Darkness” and she loves it!
When we get on the public bus to town it is crazy. The volume of the music it is so loud and the whole bus is decorated with a ‘dance and DJ’ style. There is a big tv playing the horrible videoclips of semi naked women doing disgusting dances. I am, as usual, the only white person on board.
Nairobi is not too different of the other capitals here in East Africa. It is busier and more expensive than the countryside. The only difference I notice is the dirt. It is kind of more dirty than the others. The parks are not well treated and the attractions, like Museums and Art Galleries are to expensive.
We walk a lot and come back home a little tired. I have a not too good experience when I tried to buy some snack: I thought she and the guy who was selling them had said it was veggie samosa. I bought two and when we started to walk and I have my first bite, it was meat. So I decide to buy some pop corn to prepare back at home.
After dinner, we start to watch “Silence of the Lambs” but she fell asleep.
Next morning I wake up at six. Faith decides to walk with me until the matatos (the public buses, which are actually vans). I decide it would be the best option to take one to the end of the town. Unfortunately I have not make any research before so I was totally depending of informations. I thinking I was feeling that something would go wrong.
The first matatu it is OK. I find the Mombasa Road easily. The problem it is after: I did my best to explain to everyone on the Gas Station where I needed to go: Exit of Nairobi, where it is empty, no people or cars or houses. For more than thirty minutes I try to get the best option, and at the end, I took the “wrong” bus.
I just want to keep in Mombasa Road, and I am thinking that I should leave the matatu in some point and not even take the other one I supposed to. But then, you know, I start to think that I already paid for this one so let’s go until the end. I get concerned when we exit the Mombasa Road. I get even more concerned when the matatu stops and everybody gets out. We are in the last stop. I would not pay another matatu just to came back there. I already had paid. I just should go back in there. The problem is the guy from my matatu does not speak English and it is not interested at all in helping me. So I get nervous because he is refusing to help me and I could not control the tears. I am so mad at me for still be so sensible to that. How can I changed that? Another guy form another bus understood everything and said I should stop crying because he would help me. I get in a full bus and have to pass through everybody and get a sit on the back with my bags. Horrible. At least the ladies beside me are nice: a young one and an old one. The bus is going back way too much in the road and not stopping for me to leave. I cried a little more because of that. You see, I think the problem is also the other people around because as soon I got out of the bus I immediately stopped crying and keep moving.
A few cars stop but they are not going as far as Tsavo. Finally a truck stops when I had not even made a sign. They are two men and I got a little concerned. But for some reason they looked muslins to me and I decide go with them.