Mbeya

Next morning after a decent breakfast of eggs, bread and honey I was escorted by the Brothers to the bus station for another short ride to my destination, Sumbawanga. This is the home of the Benedictine Monastery and where I would be catching up to Bro Gasper Toke, my host.

I caught the 10 o'clock local bus which cruised along gently at 50 kph whilst I was soothed by some traditional style, modern Tanzanian songs played on a pretty decent sound system. I could not figure out the duration of the trip beforehand, but made sure I was running on empty just in case. Fortunately, as this turned out to be 8 hours travelling with only one "comfort" stop in the bush.

Once more I was rescued from the ever helpful touts at the bus stop by another member of OSB, Bro Clements who drove me to another diocesan hostel for the night. 8 euros + 2.20 for chicken and rice and banana + 1.80 for a couple of Serengeti beers. Best of all, there was hot water and a shower that worked all by itself. So for the first time since leaving Europe I went to bed feeling pampered and clean, so much so that I repeated the experience the following morning.Read more