THE BUS RIDE…
This is kind of a long story but I think it is worth the read. It is one of the most memorable experiences I have had ever, not just on this particular trip. It was the worst experience on the bus ride from Mombassa to Kisumu. So bad… The first issue was that we were trying to get a bus so close to Christmas when everyone was traveling. I was traveling with my friend Max while Linda was heading back to Nairobi with another friend. We looked at every major bus station and then some of the smaller ones and there was nothing. Finally we found a bus that had some room. They charged us way over the regular price but we felt like we had no choice. The guy told us that the bus was nice, that it had air conditioning, that the seats reclined and that they showed a movie. He even showed us the seats we were to have. Two seats together on one side of the bus. It sounded nice like the one we had taken to Mombassa or so we thought. The bus started off being over an hour late and the company kept telling us to go to this corner and then to another one. So here Max and I are going all over the place carrying our bags (I have four bags, Max has one bag and I have my blanket. Finally the bus comes and it is not what we were told it was, it is “The Big Green Monster.” The seats are just benches and the bus is nearly full and there is no place above to place the bags. They take Max to put his bag under the bus and I have to get on with all my bags alone. I get on and ask the bus manager guy where I am supposed to sit, that someone else is coming and we are together. He looks at me and says, “Just because you are white you think you know everything!” I am like “what?” He tells me to sit down and so I sit next to this woman and Max comes to sit with me. I move over and the lady gives me this dirty look and says, “You are sitting on me!” She then gets up and leaves the seat. So Max and I shift over. At this point I realize that the air condition on the bus is just that the windows don’t close properly. I am pretty upset and miserable at this point but I don’t want Max to think I am weak and can’t handle tough situations so I am thinking I can do this, I can handle the situation. We leave and drive for about an hour and then stop again. I think I should mention that before we got on the bus a guy took our tickets to ‘check’ them to make sure we were on the right bus and never gave them back so right now we don’t have any proof of our tickets. This man in the aisle starts arguing with the bus conductor man telling him that Max and I are in the seats he paid for so they move us. I am told to sit down next to this other lady who really does not want to sit next to me. I sit down and she won’t move so I am sitting with my legs in the aisle. Now remember, I also have all my bags with me although Max takes two of them. They put Max in the back of the bus and we head out. This is when I started to cry. Max comes up to see if I am okay and I just look ahead and say “No its fine, I am okay, no problem, really its fine.” I don’t think he believes me but I am really trying to be tough and show him I can deal with things. He sits down and we drive for awhile. I should also point out that somewhere on this trip we realize that we were scammed. The guys who gave us tickets don’t actually have a bus but they sold our “seats” to another company and the bus that we were on wasn’t even going to the town we were headed to. They were just going to put us on another bus at some point. So then we stop again and they tell us that we are getting on another bus so we get all the stuff and get off the bus. We are being told to go one way and then the other and finally we are told to get back on the bus we had just gotten off of. While we had been off, a bunch of hawkers got on the bus trying to sell watches and blankets at eleven at night. The bus conductor was yelling at them to get off and I am just trying to get to my seat and then he starts beating them and throwing their stuff out the window and I am right in the middle of it. I sit down next to angry lady again, legs in the aisle and bags on my lap and that is when I start to cry the second time. My face is in my blanket and I feel this tap on my shoulder. It is Max feeling really bad and apologizing for the situation and asking if I am okay. Still wanting to appear tough and strong I tell him, “No, its fine, I am okay, no problem, its fine, really I am okay.” He was super sweet though and talked to the man next to him so that the next stop we can switch seats and I go and sit in the back with Max. We stop after another couple of hours at a place for food and restrooms. Now every time we stop I am worried they are going to want to see our tickets that we don’t have. Fortunately we are okay this time. We both have cold somosas and warm coke. We get back on the bus and I am able to sit in the back with Max finally. We ride for a long time. I was hoping to be able to sleep but there are potholes the size of small ditches all over and we are sitting in the back where every bump bounces us nearly off the seat. Max is sitting next me having no problem dosing off. I can deal with this although it still pretty much sucks. Then comes the real entertainment. A guy behind us is completely drunk and decides to see if he can make some fun. He goes to the front of the bus and starts an argument. Five guys decided to calm him down by joining together to beat him senseless. I don’t mean restraining, I mean kicking and punching him. The drunk guy would be on the ground and then surge up only to be attacked by all five guys. He is being tossed all over the seats right where I had been sitting before. Finally they stop and the guy is sobered up from the attack and heads back to his seat. The whole time I am so scared and don’t know what to do while everyone on the bus is watching and snickering about. I am thinking that this is so far from what I know, oh man! Not fifteen minutes later, I smell a match burning. We turn around and the drunk guy is playing with matches. I am thinking oh crap, he is going to burn the bus down. I am totally stressing but nobody seems to care! And Max is sitting next to me headed back to sleep. It is getting cold and Max is not one to deal well with the cold so he now has my blanket wrapped around him and up over his entire head. It is now like three in the morning and we arrive in Nairobi, halfway through our trip. The bus people decide to stop and the police station to have the drunk guy arrested. So we sat there for twenty minutes. Finally we are off again. The next few hours are okay. It is cold and bumpy but no drunks or beatings so I am doing okay. At around five or six in the morning we stop at a new town. This is where we are told to get off to get onto the bus actually going to our destination. So off we go with all the bags and again are moved from one side of the street to the other, from one bus to the other but are then told to actually get on another bus. Max has to go get his bag so I am standing in the middle of the sidewalk with all my bags, looking a little haggard and tired, waiting for Max. Along comes this guy who is talking and then yelling at me in Swahili and I have no idea what he is saying but I think he is telling me to get on the bus. I am trying to tell him I can’t yet, I am waiting for someone but he doesn’t seem to get it. Then another guy comes up and starts yelling at the guy yelling at me saying, “you are an idiot, can’t you see she doesn’t understand you, stop yelling at her.” So these to men proceed to fight right there in front of me over the fact that I don’t know what is going on. Max comes back and we get on the bus and are given strict orders of what seats to get into. We get to the seats and there is a person in one of them so we are split up again although Max is right behind me and we are both on the aisle. He asks the guy next to me if they can trade but the guy just says something like he is getting off soon. I am not sure though because he wasn’t speaking English. So I sit down and this guy just stares at me for the next couple of hours. At one point, my scarf fell on his leg and he pokes me and just points to the scarf and I pick it up and place it on my laugh. It was so weird. So about two and a half hours into the trip he pokes me again and says “you sit here.” He gets up, squeezes past and stands in the aisle till I move and then he sits down again and stares at me some more. After a few minutes I am like, “can my friend sit here?” He agrees and tell Max to quickly get up there. They switch and I am finally comfortable for the first time in about fifteen hours. We finally arrive at our destination nearly sixteen hours after getting on The Green Monster. I tell you, it is a great story to tell but not the best experience at the time!