ARRIVE IN MWANZA
2030: Arrive Mwanza
2100: Drive from Airport to Isamilo Lodge
2130: Buffet dinner at Isamilo Lodge
Jambo from Mwanza!
Today we made the journey to Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania. Yes, 1 bus, 3 flights and 36 hours later (mostly spent sitting in airports trying to stay awake, I made it here alive and in one piece albeit a little terrified and a lot dusty after the long two days. The flight from Dar es Salaam was an hour and 15 minutes on Precision Airways. The seats were so narrow and I was squished between two Tanzanian men (who had perhaps overdosed a little on the ugali) one of which spent the journey frantically highlighting some sort of report/essay and the other dressed in a mismatched suit and reading an English book on succeeding at job interviews. The landing was "interesting"- it felt like we went from 18 000 feet to 0 in less than ten minutes. Living on the edge... I figure that was just the way they like to do things over here.
As I stepped off the plane and the wave of heat and the smell of sweat hit me, my stomach did a flip-flop, but not in a bad way. I felt an overwhelming sense of joy. It felt like I was home in a very strange way. Their baggage claim was a small room that barely contained all the passengers from our flight, and was pretty much a free for all. The bags were thrown on a platform and it was up to us to grab them before anyone else did. After gathering my stack of luggage I made my way to customs.
I did manage to pass through customs without any problems except it was definitely the most hectic customs I've ever seen. There was one window, two officers taking passports, landing cards and 50 USD through a whole in the window while everyone just crowded around waiting to hear their names being called to get their passport through the slit. Some were handed back right away, for others it took a little longer (probably depended on whether they liked the sound of your name or not) and then it would eventually be returned to you. And then as soon as you stepped out of the airport there were about thirty taxi drivers and a young boy selling various items swarming you and offering their respective service. Luckily though we had Paul, the clinical director to meet and greet us along with two pre arranged safari cars to take us to our first stop in Tanzania - Isamillo Lodge.
The town centre was buzzing and seemed a little hectic. It's not that the roads are crowded with traffic(the town is really only 22000 people), its the mixture of taxis, pick up trucks with kids hanging off back and bicycles and motorbikes all swerving to avoid pedestrians strolling along with basins effortlessly balanced on their heads. There are kids of all ages running along the dusty streets and everyone smiles and offers some form of greeting.
Somehow it's gone from being bright as mid-day to pitch black and seeing as this is when the mosquitoes get hungry I headed off to bed under a very nice looking mosquito net!
MWANZA FACTS
- Life expectancy is about 45
- 50% of the population is under 16 years
- There are 11 dentists for 3.2 million people
- It is estimated that 80% of people here suffer dental related pain at any given time
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