Bagamoyo (Part 1 of 3)

Had We Known

We have been planning this little trip to Bagamoyo since I first got here in May. Pastor mentioned it as a possibility and without really knowing what or where it was, I said that it sounded like fun. Had I known, especially the where part, I may not have been so eager.

On Wednesday morning this nice bright green Land Cruiser showed up at the house to take us away on this adventure. Had we known that this would be our vehicle to drive all the way out to the coast, we may have requested a different one. It was designed to hold 7, including our driver we are 8. So Kristi and joined ourselves together at the hip in the front seat for this 7 plus hour drive.

There we were cruising down the highway, an ocean front destination in our future. That’s when we started to notice our speed decreasing and an interesting burning smell in the air. The driver pulled over to check things out. Essentially he checked all 4 tires and jumped back in the vehicle declaring “it’s not us.” Had we known that it was us (we did know, we just didn’t want to admit it) we may have turned the car around and quit while we were ahead.

So we stopped in the little village called Same. There we waited as a mechanic removed the front seats and set out to replace the burned out clutch. We were told the repair would only take about 2 hours, had we known that it was really going to take 4 and half we would surely have been much grumpier. Instead, we found a little bar next door and enjoyed some sodas, slices of avocado, and popcorn. Over the course of the afternoon, we had time for multiple games of 10 point Pitch. Kristi rocked to sleep a little girl who just wandered in and found a nice resting spot in her lap.

Then we had a little group meeting. We knew we still had a distance to go and the day was getting late. Should we turn back or should we continue on? None of us really wanted to arrive at midnight. We were assured by pastor, by the driver, and by the hotel at our destination that we were 2 and half hours away. Had we known that we were really 7 hours away (had we had a map along we would have) I think we would have called it quits.

So we packed ourselves back into the Land Cruiser and the driver popped in his Mp3 player and what to our my wondering ears should be heard, but Bing Crosby (or some other old crooner) singing Blue Christmas. So we all I sang along. Had we known that this particular play list would cycle through about 4 times over the next leg of the trip, that first round of singing Christmas carols while cruising through Africa would not have been nearly as much fun for us me.

Eventually we turned onto a road that was to be the “shortcut” to Bagamoyo. I think it legitimately was, but it was also bumpy and gravel and had almost no other traffic on it. After about an hour of driving on this road the head lights on the Land Cruiser began to flicker and eventually went out completely. This was a bit scary as the only other light we had was by way of the starry night sky. Had we known that it was just a quick tightening of a certain cable (that the mechanic back in Same had forgotten to re-tighten) and that we really were just minutes away from our destination, this little bump in the night causing our imaginations to swirl with thoughts of bandits and snakes, would not have been nearly so bad.

When we arrived at midnight we were so tired and crabby that we didn’t care about eating dinner or exploring the hotel, we just sunk into our beds. Had we known that the ocean was just steps away, our exhaustion certainly would have been less intense.

So many factors on this day and so many unknowns, I am convinced that had we known all of these things we would have missed out on this:

And because we didn't "know," we arrived at the Indian Ocean, we sank our feet in the sand, we watched the tide go out, and we collected more sea shells than anyone needs.  And no one is crabby any more. 

Well, maybe this guy!