This is Africa

That is a common saying amongst the locals and tourists alike when power outages occur, hot water is no more, tv's don't work, water isn't drinkable, buses don't show up on time, etc.  For the sake of this post, I will describe what my life has been like in Africa to date.

I live on a bus or a truck depending on who you talk to. A big yellow bus-truck. There are steps that fold up/down off the back of the bus and when you enter the cab you have recycled bus seats to your left and right facing each other. There are 10 seats along each side of the bus, under which are deep lockers that are room enough for 2 people to store all of their luggage. On the aisle between the seats are floorboards that conceal 3 large spaces with all of our food and spices that were loaded on the truck at the start of the trip in November. At the front of the truck are 4 more seats that are facing the back of the truck and a raised area behind those seats (called the beach) with cushions that serve as both our tour leaders' bed and a space where us travelers can sit/kneel during the day with our heads poked out of the roof to view the passing scenery. There are no windows, which is a good thing. Behind our seats are just big open spaces that allow for unobstructed views of the landscape playing out before us. We can kneel on our seats and look out these spaces, wave to the African kids that are so excited to see us passing through their villages and admire the scenery. There is also overhead storage to keep small items that might be needed during the day to combat the constant climate changes.  If it does start to rain, we cover the beach with a tarp and fold down tarps to cover the cabin 'windows'. It is nice to be facing your fellow travelers during the day instead of sitting on forward facing seats that most buses have. It allows for much better conversation and you don't have to turn your head to admire the scenery, which is good because you spend alot of time on the truck, I mean alot of time. There are days when we leave one campsite at 7am and don't arrive at the next until 7pm. We stop whenever we need to in order to pee in the bushes. We stop to make lunch and stop to shop for groceries. Other than that, we just sit. Some people read, alot of people sleep. I typically just stay awake and admire the scenery no matter how redundant it may be, because I am in Africa and I paid alot of money for this trip. 

On most nights we sleep in established campsites. Other nights, we sleep along the road somewhere and bush camp by the fire. Those nights are the best. Chatting the night away by the campfire, playing campfire games and sleeping under the stars is what I envisioned every night to be. Most campsites have tv and very slow internet speeds. Most of them don't have hot showers, and if they do have hot water, it last for about 2-3 people. Water pressure is a luxury. I have gone at least a week without a shower on occasion and 1-2 weeks between underwear and sock changes. It may sound gross, but when you don't have laundry facilities, and the humidity keeps handwahsed clothes from drying before they must be packed, it's just easier to be dirty. 

We get $30 for grocery shopping to feed everyone on the truck for 3 meals, which essentially works out to about $1 to feed each person 3 meals. Try doing that in 1st world conntries. Usually some form of meat with rice/pasta/potato and veg for dinner. Bread, cereal, fruit for breakfast. Leftovers and other random foods for lunch. Cheese and eggs are luxury items that aren't typically bought unless with money from our own pockets.  The beer sucks. Admittedly, I'm not a huge lager fan, which is unfortunate, because essentially,that is all that Africa produces. A bunch of lagers that all taste the same. At least it only costs $1-2 per beer at campsites. To be fair, the beer is drinkable and some are tasty like Pilsner Ice, Safari, and Kilimanjaro, but if you blindfolded me and put all of these beers in a taste test lineup, I probably wouldn't be able to distinguish one from the other.

The tents are roomy enough for 2 people with some personal belongings. I have a tent to myself for the rest of the trip, but have shared with 2 other people and it works out just fine. Sometimes there is snoring or malaria medicine induced nightmares that wake people up around our tents, but we are all pretty understanding people.

All in all, it has been a good time and a really interesting social experiment that would make for a good thesis for a psychologist major.