Andrew and I traveled to Dar es Salaam for a week of branch strategy meetings and after a very good four days of plotting and planning with others from around Uganda and Tanzania, we returned home on Saturday. There are flights to/from Musoma only on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and since we wanted to return on Saturday, we had to fly into Mwanza instead of Musoma. Mwanza is about 3.5 hours away from Musoma and there are lots of buses that go between the two cities every day.
On the flight from Dar to Mwanza we were served little chicken salad sandwiches. One may not be given food on domestic flights in the States any more, but this was like a little free lunch on our little Tanzanian airplane! I was kind of hungry so ate mine, feeling thankful for what appeared to be a free lunch.
BUT I had forgotten the tried and true statement that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH! Sure enough, food poisoning set in not too long thereafter and I was one miserable traveler. I haven't prayed so hard (most prayers were along the lines of "Please, please don't let me throw up now, God - I can't open the window and there are people all around me!) or felt so awful while traveling in quite some time. But thanks be to God, I never actually threw up.
We got a bus from Mwanza to Musoma and arrived at about 7:30pm. Instead of stopping at the usual bus terminal, where there are always lots of taxis waiting for passengers with some money and luggage, the bus went all the way to the bus company's bus terminal, which is located on a bit of a back alley in town. There were no taxis! I saw a car drive up and although it was not marked as being a taxi, I went ahead and approached the driver, asking "Taxi?"
The driver said, "No, this is not a taxi, but I can help you if you need to go somewhere. Where is your destination?"
I explained where we needed to go and he and his friend cheerfully loaded our bags and away we went. He and I had a little conversation on the way, during which I found out that he is an engineer with Tanroads, the company which has (SLOWLY!!!) been building the road on which we live. Since he was taking us to our office, he knew that we were missionaries involved in Bible translation. He told me, "I'm a Muslim, but I like to read the Bible. It's a good book. You are doing good work in translating it into local languages."
When we arrived, Andrew tried to give him a tip to thank him for giving us a ride. He turned it down! I have never encountered someone here turning me down when I've offered money, especially money for a service rendered! We were astounded by this cheerful, helpful man who was willing to aid a couple stranded Americans.
So, there may not be any free lunches (I paid the price quite dearly for mine), but free rides still exist, at least in Musoma!
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