Yesterday we embarked on a 10-hour bus ride from Dar Es Salaam. After a great breakfast of eggs, crepes and instant coffee, we headed out from our hotel at 7:30 a.m.
Although it was a Sunday morning, traffic was miserable. We sat in traffic for approximately one hour before getting out of the city. Shortly into the trip, we saw a motorcyclist collide with the semi in front of us head on. The motorcycle was smashed to pieces and as the cyclist summersaulted past our bus. We think we saw the motorcyclist walk away from the wreck by some miracle.
As we continued on our journey, we were amazed by the changing landscape. The further we got out of Dar Es Salaam, the more hilly the landscape became. Many of the houses along the way were built out of red mud or red brick which is the color of the soil in Tanzania.
As we drove the Tanzanian highlands, we felt as if we were on a roller coaster ride at Disneyland. The road was incredibly hilly and winding and we hurdled down the road at approximately 65 mph. The landscape was absolutely beautiful and we were able to take some incredible pictures. Once we got near Iringa, the landscape appeared to look like that of something you would see in the Rocky mountains. There are giant boulders and hills everywhere. The weather is also, thankfully, much cooler, not as cool as back home in Minnesota in January, though!
When we finally made it to Iringa, we met another traffic jam. Tanzania's finance minister recently passed away. As a result, many of the government officials were attending a funeral in Iringa and the main road was shut down. Since we were near the place we were staying, our group got out and walked the rest of the way to the Lutheran Center. We had a nice dinner here and were all completely exhausted and in bed by about 9 p.m.
