Kigoma and waiting for the train

The train ride from Kigoma to Tabora was an extreme experience on the trip. It's horrendous. It challenged my limits. It's among the three highlights of the backpacking trip: Masindi's nursery home; Samburu village visit and Kigoma train ride.

My original attempt for Liemba ferry ride didn't work out. In this part of world transportation doesn't necessarily operate as scheduled. My original plan was to take Liemba ferry along Lake of Tanganyika to Mpulungu and then back to Dar. The ferry was not leaving till the following Wednesday. I decided to take the train to Tabora and bus to Mbeya. The train was leaving on Thursday night. So I got 2-3 days to kill in Kigoma.

Kigoma is a small and scrappy town. The weather had been really hot. I stayed at Nzimanto Hostel where there were quite of a few Mozugos volunteers. In Kigoma I noticed a lot of pretty African women with cute face. 

For two days I had worked on getting the train ticket. I was first told that the first class and second class were sold out long time ago, leaving me the only option for third class. After comparing the bus option, I decided to take the third class train to Tabora. The train tickets are not being sold in a normal and legal manner. Because of the less frequency of the train schedule and high demand, the train tickets had become a speculator's target. They were bought at a normal price and sold for a high price. 

The train was leaving at night. I went to the ticket booking window in the early morning. Some villagers had arrived days ago and camped out at the train station to wait for the booking window to open. There were hundreds of people already anxiously waiting for the book window to open. The train won't be leaving till that night. These locals traveled all the way from their villages and slept at the outdoor train station for days to get the train tickets! No one speaks English at the train station. When I spoke to the station master office, I was told to come back to the booking office and collect the ticket around noon. I was not sure if I can trust the information. Later I was told by someone else that these people are swindler and they try to sell a ticket to me at a higher price. People had lined up for ticket. That will be 4-5 hours wait from the ticket window open. I knew that I would not wait in the line for 4-5 hours. I left and came back a couple of hours later. There was a larger crowd divided into two lines: one is for Dar and other other is for Tabora. There was a long queue for Tabora. I was told again that the ticket window will open around 12:30 pm. I took off again. I knew I need to make some friends. I went to " Sun City" for some drinks where I met Mr. Shimmiya who happily gave me a contact name at the train station and the instruction on how to find the person. I went straight back to the trains station. Within 15 minutes I got my ticket at a normal price. When I walked out the train station, I saw enormous Africans standing in the line and hadn't moved at all. They looked exhausted and anxious. These Africans had traveled from their remote villages and camped at the train station for days and stood in the lines for hours for the tickets. The tickets are not guaranteed for them. If they were lucky to get the tickets, they would still have to wait many hours in the hot sun before boarding the train. The night on the train was another horrendous nightmare, which was revealed to me later that night. Life is very difficult for these Africans. They are amazingly tough. I felt very sorry for them. I knew I could have made to the fast lane even without the stranger's contact just for the sake of a foreigner's face. Foreigners always have some privileges over the locals in these countries. The officials look up to foreigners and often treat foreigners better than their own people. I felt very sad.
Whist waiting for the train, I took a tour to Livingstone's home- Ujiji village. Dr. David Living was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary. On November 10, 1871, Henry Stanley found Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji village, which gave rise to the popular quotation " Dr. Livingstone, I presume?".  Ujiji village is a very poor village by the lake. My tour guide Batenya told me that Ujiji is poorer than other villages in this region. We walked through the village to the Ujiji lake shore. It's a big sandy beach where women were washing Kangas in the lake and placed them on the grass for air dry and men and children were swimming or hanging out.
I also took a small hike on the hills behind my hostel. I hiked half way to the peak. The trail offers a great view of Lake of Tanganyaki and the port. On the way back down, I walked through a village by Lake Kibirizi where local people were selling small fish.
I had to fight homesick from time to time throughout the trip. The loneliness was the biggest challenge on the solo trip like this. In Kigoma I became very homesick. Having been on the road for several months, I had also grown a bit " Africa fatigue". I sort of lost the enthusiasm and inspirations with these village expeditions and hikes. I felt bad for that. I also realized that lack of communication is partly attributed to the loss of interest.