On March 18, 2017, our family took the Express train from Kigoma to Dar Es Salaam. We were told it would take approximately 36 hrs. so we prepared for the adventure. We were up at 6 am, ate a quick breakfast, cleaned up the dishes, packed the last minute things and by 7:30 am we were walking the few blocks from our house to the Kigoma train station. The train was scheduled to leave at 8 am sharp. It was chaotic when we arrived. Luke and I guided our brood thru the crowded station and headed for the train cars at the bottom of the steps. Car number 2229 was on our ticket so we climbed aboard and then located cabin "D". We got settled, as best we could. The one sink in our cabin was leaking badly and leaving a big puddle of water on the floor, so all of the bags had to go on the seat or on the top bunk. The kids were very excited and explored our tiny living space while hopping from one bunk to the other.
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| 4 kids on the top bunk. |
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| Luke down the narrow hall of the cabins. |
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| The boys in the cabin. |
At 5 minutes to 8, the train whistle blew and at 8 o'clock sharp we started rolling. We were all very excited! As we pulled away from the station we enjoyed a view of Kigoma we hadn't seen before and saw the back of houses we had seen only from the main road. As the train cars lurched forward and swayed a bit with the curve of the tracks, the water on our floor moved to the door of the cabin. We quickly picked up our flip flops and got them out of the way before they became wet too.
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| Leaving Kigoma. |
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| We were towards the back of the train. |
Luke's mom and dad were waiting at a road intersection ahead and we looked out our window to catch the first glimpse of them. First we saw their car and then we saw them both waving at the train, unsure of which car we were in. So the kids yelled to their grandparents and waved frantically. They still looked very sleepy as they had hosted a birthday party at their house the night before, but they were happy to see us safely on the train and took a video of us going past.
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| Emily and Aaron playing cards. |
Some nearby passengers noticed all of the water mess in our cabin and offered to call the train attendant to come and clean the mess. A lady soon came to our cabin to inspect and then left to return with a bucket and a mop. She proceeded to spread the water around and mop up only a little bit, there wasn't much else you could do. Then she left with her mop and bucket. So now we had a wet floor in every corner of the cabin and gave strict instructions to not step on it until it had dried. It was still the cool part of the morning and a breeze from our window and our door was refreshing. The floor didn't take long in drying. Then a maintenance man showed up with our cleaning lady and he took a close look at our sink to determine why the leak and happened in the first place. But he couldn't find any leak. We told him we'd watch out for it and let him know if we needed his help. Thankfully it did not leak again.
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| Michael taking a nap on the top bunk. |
A bit later our train attendant lady came by with pillows for every passenger, clean sheets and some wool blankets. I didn't think we'd be needing the heavy blankets but she was off too quick before we could hand them back so we kept them. Well, it was nearing 10 am and the kids were ready for second breakfast. I stayed in the cabin with Michael while Luke took the other kids with him to explore and locate the dining car. They came back only 30 min. later raving about the lovely tea and chapati (fried flat bread) they had enjoyed. So we enjoyed many trips to the dining car during our trip and had nice meals there.
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| At the Dodoma train station. |
It was a long day and a not so long night. We ended up needing those thick blankets when it cooled down in the middle of the night. We kept our window open as the train chugged along, but when we felt it come to a stop, Luke and I would get up and close the windows so the mosquitoes couldn't fly into our cabin.
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| The middle bunk is the best. |
As we passed by towns it was neat to recognize them from the many times we had driven by in our car. Having the train come by is a bit of a big deal, so everyone would stop to look at the train, some kids would wave. And anytime they got a glance at us, the white people, they would point and exclaim to their neighbor. Many people took videos with their phones. I wonder what you do with that kind of footage in your memory card?
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| Boys looking at the sights. |
Well, by the end of the second day, it was obvious we were running very late on schedule. Many of the passengers and crew members had different ideas of when we would be pulling into Dar Es Salaam. Some were hopeful and said by 10 pm, but others said that maybe by 7 am the next morning. As the sun set we finally could see Morogoro in the distance, (it is a 4 hr. drive by car from there to Dar). We finally pulled into the Morogoro train station at 7 pm. We saw many passengers jump off the train with their bags and head towards the bus station, hoping to make it into Dar at a better time than the slow train. I headed to the dining car with the girls to get our dinner as the boys waited in the cabin. As we got seated and asked to place our order we were told by the attendant that they were all out of food on the train as they had expected to be in Dar by this hour and had only brought the food for two days and no more. Well, I sent Esther sprinting back to our cabin to let Luke know so he'd have a chance to get off the train and buy some food from the local people before the train pulled from the station. A couple minutes later Luke jumped back onto the train with a black plastic bag (our to-go container) of rice and meat just as the train began to pull away. We sat in our cabin and enjoyed our last meal on the train.
Then it was time for bed. The kids did not put on their pjs as we were hoping to arrive in Dar in the middle of the night. Our DVD player could not play any movies because the battery had died and we had forgotten an adapter for our cord. There were some last cookies though, so we ate those before brushing our teeth. Esther and Emily climbed into their top bunks, Aaron climbed onto his middle bunk, Luke got as comfortable as he could on the bottom bunk and I slept next to Michael to ensure he didn't roll off the bed. And we slept.
I suddenly woke up with a start to realize the train was not moving. I peered out of the curtain and saw a sign: "Dar Es Salaam"! I quickly woke Luke up and we woke up the kids. We grabbed our bags and headed out into the dark and muggy train station, it was 3 am.
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| Getting close to Morogoro. |
And 3 days later we were back on the train, ready to ride the rails back to our Kigoma.
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| Aaron is all smiles on our return train ride. |
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| The cabin. |
