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We got up early this morning to catch the bus to Mwanza and Tessa had so kindly offered to give us a lift. As we got to the bus station, there were so many people shouting and offering us tickets so Tessa had to drop us off into the madness. Once everyone had realised we already had tickets, they left us mostly alone. When the bus arrived at the station, a seemingly kindly person escorted us onboard and 'weighed' our bags after asking us how much they weighed. Once we had found our seats he came up to us and told us it was 20000 more each because of the weight of our bags! We of course queeried this and asked him why he didn't have the coach uniform on. When i finaly asked to speak to the driver about it, he went to go and 'find' him but the man nvever turned up. What a try at a scam! Once we had left the station, a fellow passenger told us that it was a scam. Thanks for helping us out before!!
So we arrived in Mwanza on a comfortable coach and on some paved roads! Very supprising and brilliant. We then got a taxi to take us to the guesthouse, later finding out he had no idea where it was and for good reason. It turned out to be a tiny little place with a building site on the floors below and a very loud mosque near by. So Luke and I crammed ourselves into the room which had a TV, a fan and barred windows. We decided it was safe enough and it would do for 2 nights. After we had settled in, we went searching for some food! There turned out to be a roadside BBQ nearby which was very very tasty and passion fruit juice which was average, all for a very cheap price.
The next morning, we went searching for a port to try and find a cargo ship to take us across Lake Vic. We finally managed to find one after taking some boda-bodas (motorbikes) to it. As we approached the gate to it, we inquired about any ferrys and sadly they said that the only one that is allowed to take other passengers is broken down so Luke and I decided to go and book a bus to Bukoba and find our way to Kabale from there. Getting boda-bodas back to the guesthouse was very hard as no one really knew where it was so after some more wandering around, this time on bikes, we spotted a hotel that we recognised so headed for that and walked to the gueshouse from there. Bartering the price back down again was very difficult this time! They were so so persistant with their price! At least it's easy enough to find a bike in this massive city.
When we got back to the guesthouse we got talking to a man called Ami who was just standing outside outside the entrance. He said that he was voulunteering with an orphanage in Mwanza and asked if we wanted to visit it and talk to some voulunteers there. We said yes as we were interested and had time. So we met up early evening when he took us to meet his friend. We then walked quite a long distance to a very shady bar that was basically just someon's back garden with a high concrete wall around it and a secure metal door. In this so called bar we tried some of the locally brewed banana beer which didn't taste too great but was interesting to try!
After the bar we were taken to a live music stage were we were told that we would meet some volunteers and as it was too late, couldn't go to the orphanage. We had a great time here with some great singing and trying some more local beers, this time branded ones such a kilimanjaro and they even had tusker. As the night passed on they said that the volunteers couldn't make it due to unforseen circustances. When they said this, luke and i realised that they probably just wanted us to buy drinks for them all night. We didn't mind this too much as we had so much fun and they were great to talk to, teaching us more kiswahili, and also a great laugh.
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