Me in my bed in Mansa
Today, we have a long journey set out before us. We are currently in [[Chipata]] and must go to Lusaka and then to our final destination, [[Mansa]]. We will travel both these legs via bus. The language here is [[Nyanja]]. When the people speak Nyanja , it sounds like they are mad at each other, but when they speak in English, they sound happy.
We woke up at 4:20 AM to catch the bus to Mansa. Both the taxi driver and the bus manager called John’s phone to make sure us mzungus were awake. We took a double decker bus via Juldan Motorways. We had great seats; we sat on the top deck in the very front seats. When we entered the bus, loud worship music was playing. Songs such as “I surrender all: and “Lord of All” and “Amazing Grace” played. A preacher came on the bus before it left and preached for about a half an hour.
Our bus was to leave at 5:30 AM but left at 6:30 AM. We got into Lusaka around 3:15 PM. The trip was pretty smooth, much better than the ride from Lusaka to Chipata. In Lusaka we had little time to catch our next bus. John and I grabbed some food and brought it back to the bus. We found these meat pie items which were like DP Dough with chicken, vegetables, and potatoes. They tasted okay.
The bus left Lusaka at 4:10pm. The bus ride was OK except the last few hours which were really bumpy due to the frequent potholes in the road we encountered. We had to constantly start and stop to deal with the potholes.
We had to watch the same crappy Nigerian movies on these bus trips as we did on previous ones. This time we watch Nigerian favorites: Osuofia in London 1 and 2. Below is the trailer for the first one.
Our bus was packed with luggage and cargo. We had everything on that bus from knitting yarn to a spare tire. We had the seats on the very back of the bus so we had to watch for luggage sliding forward and hitting us when we stopped quickly. The last one third of the bus aisle was filled with luggage. At one point during our trip, we had to process the bus through a weigh station. At the weigh station, they check to ensure the bus is balanced, the front and back weigh the same, and that the gross weight is under some specified amount. The bus driver knew that we were not balanced so had John, Ruth, and I and a few other passengers move to the front of the bus to sit in empty seats since we were tail heavy. After going through the weigh station, we found out that we were not balanced and weight too much. So, the driver had two-thirds of the passengers get off the bus and then made another attempt through the weigh station. This time, the bus miraculously made weight and we successful passed through the gate and then picked up the remaining passengers and went on our way. Apparently, actually making weight is not that important but getting the weight correct on paper is.
We finally got into mansa at 4:10 AM the next day. After getting our bags and taking the taxi, we arrived at John and Ruth’s at 4:30 AM. I was really tired and went to sleep right away.