It's about seven or eight pm and I find myself in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe waiting for a bus to leave to the national capital Harare. The city is dark and dirty, both literally and figuratively. The tide has turned since this morning.
This morning was a beautiful sunny day as I departed from Helen, Ian, and David in Livingstone, Zambia to travel back to Mozambique through Zimbabwe. I am off to a late start but I feel confident in my options and rough idea of a plan. Of course there is never a dull moment in my travels especially after adding my lack of planning to the equation.
I’m alone, it’s dark, and I don’t know the city or country I’m in. I have no phone, no map, no watch, no clock, nor a flashlight. I’m not freaking out but I’m definitely feeling very alert and asking myself why am I in this situation? There are a bunch of men outside the bus I’m on just loitering and joking around, nothing unusually for Southern Africa; the city is full of trash and the buildings are run down, still not unusual for Southern Africa. I think I may have just been hustled. The person I paid for my bus ticket is long gone. I really hope I have a seat because I have nowhere to go. How did this happen?
Mistake number one happened months ago; I lost my US debit card. Mistake number two is more recent; over the last few days I spent all my money from my Mozambique account without making any plans to transfer money. My third mistake, getting off to a late start, is a direct result of my first two mistakes. I should have left at 5-6am but I ended up leaving around 10am. Mistake number four, I got on a very slow bus to Bulawayo and watched numerous vehicles pass us that I could have gotten a ride from. My plan was to catch a 9:30pm train to Mutare that would arrive the next morning. After an hour on my bus, I realized that the 9:30 train would never happen. They have over night buses to Harare but as I did the math in my head I was going to arrive at 1-2am.
To Be Continued
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