Oops! I knew I forgot something ... My Patience.

Blog Posted By: KZ

In preparation for my two month trek to Africa, I made sure that my packing process was organized, done with ease and, most importantly, finished well before hand. The last thing I wanted to do was to spend my final days in Hawaii in a chaotic frenzy, scrambling to remember every last detail on my packing list. As a result, I was packed and ready almost two weeks in advance.

Tent ✔

Sleeping Bag ✔

Toothbrush ✔

First Aid Kit ✔

Cheez its ✔

However, in a matter of seconds after touching down on Tanzanian soil it dawned on me that I had forgotten to pack one of the most essential tools for surviving on this continent, patience (and a whole lot of it). To me, having no patience here falls within the same severity category as having no bug spray. Without it, you will be eaten alive. Maybe, physically, you won't develop red, itchy bumps, but mentally, your brain will start sweating, you'll develop an odd back-and-forth pace in your normal step and you might even see steam come out of your ears (but that is only in extreme circumstances).

In Africa, one's patience is put to the test on an hourly basis, and after being here just a week, we've been tested multiple times. Within minutes of exiting our plane after hours of flying (and for Aly and I, literally days of flying), our patience was put to the test. Unlike most other countries that have a somewhat organized system of how to obtain a visa upon arrival, Tanzania literally makes you figure the entire process out on your own. With no direction given, customs and airport officials watch, for what can take up to a few hours, foreign travelers shuffle around confused about how to begin the visa process. You don't just fill out a form, wait in line and hand it to a stern-faced man behind a glass window. Instead, you are put on a hunt for multiple forms, expected to know exactly how much it costs to obtain a visa (each country is different) and then come to terms with blindly surrendering your passport to a foreign official who will take your most important travel document away behind closed doors to be processed. What is happening behind those doors? How will I get my passport back? Is this man next to me going to rob me? There are no answers to these questions, all you can do is wait. If you are lucky, this will be finished within an hour. Meanwhile though, luggage is stacking up outside on a mini conveyor belt, the group of people waiting to pick up their friends and family outside is growing larger and louder and, worst of all, you start to develop that sweating, pacing, steaming syndrome that I talked about earlier. This is Africa.

The author of the quote, "all good things come to those who wait," must not have ever travelled to Africa. I say this because, clearly, the person had no concept that in a restaurant setting, there is nothing ever good about waiting and waiting and waiting. When you are told something will take no more than twenty-five minutes, plan on waiting at least double that for your place setting. I repeat, your place setting. Although, I really can't complain about the quality of the food here which has been extremely tasty and very kind to my stomach (minus the Ethiopian food we had two days ago), the concept of 'time' in most situations is irrelevant. They don't care if you say, "I need this food in 30 minutes" or if you plead, "My stomach will literally start to eat itself and I will become a replica of the meanest and ugliest monster you have ever encountered if I don't eat something soon." The response is always, "hukana matata, no worries." Well maybe my stomach won't in fact eat itself and I won't turn into the spawn of a dragon-killer, but it would help my disposition and sanity. But the system is set in stone. It has never not taken a long time. So we've learned instead of fighting the system to take a swig of water and swallow down a large dose of patience with the bottle of water that *hopefully* has come.

My assumption, "They probably have one there," was my second mistake. I mean, was it too far-fetched for me to assume that the Mozambique Embassy had more than one pen? I guess we all just assumed that there would be that little pen container resting on the top of the desk where people can fill out forms, place requests, or sign important documents. A few days ago, myself, Aly, Danny and Jen drove down to the Mozambique Embassy to fill out forms to obtain a visa. Little did we know, that a seemingly 10 minute process at most other places would take upwards of an hour. The importance of traveling with a pen of your own was instantly heightened for all of us and because of this experience, there are now two things I never leave my new African home without; a Clif Bar and black pen. There we stood, crowded in a little corner at the embassy trying to fill out 4 forms of paperwork to get a visa. Thank God Jen insisted we wait 30 more minutes while the man at the passport pictures store individually cut six 2x2 photos for each of us. If she had listened to me, "The embassy must have a scissors, how could they not?" we seriously would have been screwed because they didn't. In fact, I don't remember seeing any sharp object at the embassy at all. And I know they probably would not have settled for do-it-ourselves passport cut photos. This is Africa. Patience and a black pen are our greatest assets.

I'm writing about my quest for patience because not only have we experienced situations where we've really needed to dig deep to wait or even try to understand why a normally uncomplicated and organized situation is constantly a chaotic mess, but because it's a growing point. Currently, our biggest feat is waiting on our Kenyan friend and primary driver, Willy, to obtain his visa from the South African embassy. Like many of you have already questioned, we were scheduled to leave on June 11th, but because the embassy has not been as timely as we would have liked, Willy has continued to play the waiting game (very gracefully in my eyes) until he is granted a visa. Last we spoke with him he told us that they promised to have the visa ready on Monday morning, June 14th. This pushes back our departure date a few days, but thankfully since we planned to spend a few days traveling through Malawi and Mozambique, we won't be missing any of the action in South Africa. Our trip itinerary has changed slightly now as we are planning to blaze through Malawi and go straight to Mozambique where we will stay for three nights/four days and then enter South Africa. On the way back, we will trek back through Malawi and spend the days we missed here in the beginning then. I think it is safe to say that for all of us, this road trip to the World Cup is not solely about participating in the world's biggest sporting event, but it's about learning and adapting to the ways of a continent that is still very foreign to us. I guess that's the fun of travelling, right? It's not only about destinations, it's about how we get there and what we learn from the experience.