They nod their heads at your disbelief. I told you many times, this bus departs at nine in the morning. When you purchase a bus ticket this does not guarantee you a seat on the bus. One voyage, I stood for four consecutive hours, with the physical support of other passengers' bodies. And no, they would not let me ride on top of the bus, with all the cargo and the bus attendants, despite my begging.
Tanzanian buses are really motorized community centers.
The driver will play his single cassette repeatedly the entire ten hour journey. I became an instant celebrity the day I introduced Bob Marley's Legend on a bus trip. But there are no souvenir shops, refueling stations, or toilets. The length of one's visit is solely the discretion of the driver, and often the driver does not feel obligated to notify his customers of departure. At the sound of the engine, individuals abruptly drop their meals, chase and leap onto a rambling bus.