Kenya- somewhere??
1/5/13
9 am
Well, it has certainly been an eventful 24 hours! Getting baptized yesterday was amazing, and so was receiving all those heartfelt notes from friends. The afternoon at the Haven was beautiful and peaceful. I had a really encouraging theological discussion with Michael, and got to know Sandra and Anton a little better. The Haven was our last stop in Uganda, and we were to switch places with another Visiting Orphans team that had been in Kenya. They left Nakuru around 6 am and were supposed to arrive at the Haven around 1 or 2 in the afternoon... They got there around 6 pm. The bus driver, Daniel, had been driving team 1 all day and intended to turn around and drive us back. Obviously Merrill and Michael had some concerns, but Daniel assured them that he was fine. He ate some dinner and had some coffee and we took off around 7.
I wish I could remember the sequence of events, but it is now 9:09 am and we have just now reached Nakuru. We aren't even at Fiwagoh yet! We got lost before we even got to the Kenya border. We got to the border at 10:26 (according to Bethany) and left around 12:03. At customs, we had to get off the bus and then on again! Fun game! Conrad's passport apparently didn't get stamped coming into the Uganda airport, so that caused some problems. We estimated that we've seen easily 20 AK 47's in the last 15 hours. There are CONSTANT road blocks asking who we are and where we are going. The last actual toilet we saw was at 2:30 am. There was obviously no TP, to which Bethany touts "BYOTP!" Hahahaha! It is impossible not to have a sense of humor about our situation, although I am one of the few that does. At 3:15, Daniel pulled over and asked for a 45 minute nap. It kind of freaked a few people out, so there were some tears and a panic attack or two at a random Kenyan gas station. We got back on the road and I snuggled up with Carla and Tiffany to keep warm. The next thing I knew, I was waking up to daylight! The sun was peeking through the clouds on the mountains and it was GORGEOUS. Although we only got a couple hours of sleep, I woke up feeling refreshed and incredibly joyful.
We had a "wash room break" a couple hours ago, which entailed pulling over on some farm land and squatting. It was absolutely hilarious to see me, Katie Crawford, Carol, Gail, Leah, and Merrill just squatting on the side of the road! Hahahahaha! I will be giggling about that for a long time. Shortly thereafter, we hit our millionth road block and for the first time, the po-po got on our bus. He very sternly asked us why we weren't wearing seatbelts. All of us were pretty shocked and didn't really know what to say, so we just put on our seatbelts and he let us go. God has definitely been watching over this 15 hour bus ride.
The Kenyan countryside is absolutely mesmerizing and honestly I'd be happy to drive for a few more hours in this beautiful countryside! We should be at Fiwagoh Mission Orphanage shortly! It is on Lake Elementita and apparently has gorgeous scenery and sunsets. They are Seventh-Day Adventists and believe strongly in the Sabbath, so we won't be able to get our luggage until sun down this evening. They also don't believe in dancing at all, so it will be interesting to see how this church service looks. We will probably take a nature walk with the kids today, and I just pray that God gives us strength and love to pour into these kids today. I have too much to be thankful for to complain at all... AK
PS last night when the bus tried to get gas, they thought we were robbers. Casual. Apparently people come to get gas in the night and then drive away. We had to go elsewhere!
A glimpse of the sunrise after our FIFTEEN hour bus ride!
My view for 15 hours...
Worth it!
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