Discoveries Within and without

After a gauntlet of difficulty and stress we have finally seated ourselves in our third class seats upon the Kilamanjaro Express to Dar Es Salaam, some 1860km away. It will prove impossible to sleep in seats but this is Africa(T.I.A) and a reservation does not mean a reservation. We depart from Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia at 14h30. We are the only foreigners in third class. The 7 others that we come to know over the 72 hour journey, not surprisingly, are in the sleeper cabins.
We find so much joy in the place we least expected it, the hearts of our fellow passengers. Every face and set of hands is etched with hardships but yet they always manage a smile and a friendly hand toward us. The physical difference between us and the locals has created a welcomed curiosity and with it comes heartfelt friendship. We have stopped at a few stations each offering culinary delights that I have eagerly partook in. Our new found friends and neighbours advise us on what we should consider purchasing and in gratitude we buy something to share amongst us all. The joy and happiness for the food, which appears in the grandchildren travelling with their grandparents sitting next to us, spreads through us like wildfire. I discover myself forgetting about all the trivial worries in the world.
It’s just past midnight and the excitement with which we left Kapiri Mposhi Station, has by now cleared into a minefield of emotions, none of which are joy or excitement. Instead we are plagued by the misery of trying to sleep in cramped seats, regret at not arriving in time to claim our reservation for a sleeper cabin, the sympathy for our fellow passengers both young and old, the sorrow with which we view our current sleepless predicament and the astonishment of how unphased the locals seem in such discomfort. Closely following these emotions are sensations of cold, pain and the intermittent smell of urine from the toilet with a broken door (but I wouldn’t exactly call a hole in a train, a toilet). Every coach that is not a sleeper is scattered with limbo. Minds too tired to stay awake and bodies too uncomfortable to rest.
We leave behind the hordes of zombies to seek refuge which we find on a couch in the 2nd lounge car. At last comfort finds us and we manage sleep. With dawn comes the feeling of enduring, accomplishment and simple happiness. My love for train travel has been purely cemented by Africa and it’s people.