Recently, i was out on a Mission to the Samburu. This is a tribe of semi-nomads of the far Rift Valley Province of Kenya. Places you go to and the residents do not even consider themselves Kenyans. They will send you with greetings to take to Kenya. I mean, its far.
on our way back, we had to leave at dawn so as to make it for Nairobi by evening. The bus we had booked picked us in time and we set off.
The driver kept stopping to pick up more passengers. Even when i thought we had had enough people on board and literally no room for more, still more came in. And i mean, there was no other way for them other than scooting into this bus. Transportation is scarce here men. If they missed this one, they would have to wait for...maybe a truck ferrying flock to the market to ride on.
It zoomed passed bushes on this crazy earth road, every other while jerking awake those of us who had carried forward our sleep to this time.
as we are cruising down, up, turn here and there, an emergency break, a slow into a murky muddy section of the road and on, we suddenly here the bus mowing to a stop. The driver tries to act smart by trying to force it on but no, it halts to a stop. Yes, we had run out of fuel! Deep in the middle of no where. People start to come off the bus, but where do they go?! we are warned to walk out silently if we must because we are in a park that has all sorts of wild animals lions included.
The bus conductor comes off with a jerrycan and is flowed by one other guy, walking to no where in search of fuel. in the meantime, the driver manages to start the engine again. How, i do not know. He then cruises past those who had come off and they have to run and catch up since the bus cannot stop for them to get on. It turns into a survival for fitness struggle. Soon all the men who were out are back on board.
As we start to celebrate, the bus suddenly pulls to a halt. What again? The driver warns no one should get off. After a little struggle, a pull here a push of this there, it picks up again. And the game continues on and on. We get to the conductor and his friend with their jerrycan, they dive on board and we keep going. After some few minutes it stalls again and completely refuses to restart this time round. People get off to the relieve themselves in the bush, those with packed breakfasts start taking and sharing and chatting while the conductor again leaves with his jerrycan. A few minutes later...walla! He is back with fuel. From where, siphoned from a transit truck. At this point, no one really inquires further for the means seem to justify the end.
We happily embark on the journey with a few of my friends evangelising the other passengers and indeed harvest souls.
soon we hit another setback. Two trucks that were going in the opposite direction are stuck in the middle of the road, the turn-boys have been trying to dig the tyres out of the mud that is covering them, and you can see it has been an all night job. The region is so wet and muddy that they all look like hippos. We are forced to come off our bus for it to wade off the road through the bush as we walk/run and catch up with it somewhere ahead.
Of course we are also wading through the mud on the side of the road, a passenger car comes zooming fast off the road so as not to get stuck in the already messed up temporary side road.
Suddenly i see mud flying from beneath the car and before i coordinate myself i am all soaked from hair to toe. Literally! Yet i couldn't change because my bag was on top of the bus, and i dared not even bother asking for it for who wants to engage in the offloading. The pile on the carrier...! In fact, that's when i got to know that my bag was sitting under a sack of charcoal. Need i say more?
What an adventure!
We quickly get back on and off we go. Soon we are on tarmac and driving is cruising like one riding a motor bike. Before long i slip into a siesta still soaked on mud and while my mind slowly drifts off my mud predicament, i hear a loud bang! In my subconsciousness i shout "save us Lord!" But the bus does not stop. So i turn to my seat-mate fully awake and ask, what was that? Was i dreaming? And in shock almost with a sh shh she responds, "i don't know." "I thought it was a tyre burst?" I continue. She turns away quietly and all goes silent in the bus. I look besides me, then back at the rest of the passengers and all seem lost but saying nothing, as the bus cruises down a bridge then up again.
A few minutes later it pulls off the road, and guess what! It was indeed a tyre burst. In fact two of the tyres are deflated and have to be repaired before being put back. As they embark on finding a solution, the kids on the mission team are now grumpy from hunger and cant hold it anymore. Someone spots a roadside canteen. On inquiry, we find its a tea place. We all flood it until the owner runs out of cups and has to borrow from the neighbourhood. The tea is finished, there are those who are yet to have enough...
All in all we leave at least revitalised from the little and of course recording the memory of all this.
At the next bus stop we sit for almost three hours waiting for a second ride to Nairobi because its Easter Monday, there is too much traffic and all vehicles have left. Finally, we get onto one and on our way encounter a terrible accident that has involved 5 vehicles, both public and private. We cant see any bodies but there is one of the vehicles in a 5 metre ditch on the side of the road, the other f
our visible vehicles are a complete wreck, and we end up stuck in a snarl up for close to an hour.
And all in all, the Lord still remained supreme.
What an adventure!
on our way back, we had to leave at dawn so as to make it for Nairobi by evening. The bus we had booked picked us in time and we set off.
The driver kept stopping to pick up more passengers. Even when i thought we had had enough people on board and literally no room for more, still more came in. And i mean, there was no other way for them other than scooting into this bus. Transportation is scarce here men. If they missed this one, they would have to wait for...maybe a truck ferrying flock to the market to ride on.
It zoomed passed bushes on this crazy earth road, every other while jerking awake those of us who had carried forward our sleep to this time.
as we are cruising down, up, turn here and there, an emergency break, a slow into a murky muddy section of the road and on, we suddenly here the bus mowing to a stop. The driver tries to act smart by trying to force it on but no, it halts to a stop. Yes, we had run out of fuel! Deep in the middle of no where. People start to come off the bus, but where do they go?! we are warned to walk out silently if we must because we are in a park that has all sorts of wild animals lions included.
The bus conductor comes off with a jerrycan and is flowed by one other guy, walking to no where in search of fuel. in the meantime, the driver manages to start the engine again. How, i do not know. He then cruises past those who had come off and they have to run and catch up since the bus cannot stop for them to get on. It turns into a survival for fitness struggle. Soon all the men who were out are back on board.
As we start to celebrate, the bus suddenly pulls to a halt. What again? The driver warns no one should get off. After a little struggle, a pull here a push of this there, it picks up again. And the game continues on and on. We get to the conductor and his friend with their jerrycan, they dive on board and we keep going. After some few minutes it stalls again and completely refuses to restart this time round. People get off to the relieve themselves in the bush, those with packed breakfasts start taking and sharing and chatting while the conductor again leaves with his jerrycan. A few minutes later...walla! He is back with fuel. From where, siphoned from a transit truck. At this point, no one really inquires further for the means seem to justify the end.
We happily embark on the journey with a few of my friends evangelising the other passengers and indeed harvest souls.
soon we hit another setback. Two trucks that were going in the opposite direction are stuck in the middle of the road, the turn-boys have been trying to dig the tyres out of the mud that is covering them, and you can see it has been an all night job. The region is so wet and muddy that they all look like hippos. We are forced to come off our bus for it to wade off the road through the bush as we walk/run and catch up with it somewhere ahead.
Of course we are also wading through the mud on the side of the road, a passenger car comes zooming fast off the road so as not to get stuck in the already messed up temporary side road.
Suddenly i see mud flying from beneath the car and before i coordinate myself i am all soaked from hair to toe. Literally! Yet i couldn't change because my bag was on top of the bus, and i dared not even bother asking for it for who wants to engage in the offloading. The pile on the carrier...! In fact, that's when i got to know that my bag was sitting under a sack of charcoal. Need i say more?
What an adventure!
We quickly get back on and off we go. Soon we are on tarmac and driving is cruising like one riding a motor bike. Before long i slip into a siesta still soaked on mud and while my mind slowly drifts off my mud predicament, i hear a loud bang! In my subconsciousness i shout "save us Lord!" But the bus does not stop. So i turn to my seat-mate fully awake and ask, what was that? Was i dreaming? And in shock almost with a sh shh she responds, "i don't know." "I thought it was a tyre burst?" I continue. She turns away quietly and all goes silent in the bus. I look besides me, then back at the rest of the passengers and all seem lost but saying nothing, as the bus cruises down a bridge then up again.
A few minutes later it pulls off the road, and guess what! It was indeed a tyre burst. In fact two of the tyres are deflated and have to be repaired before being put back. As they embark on finding a solution, the kids on the mission team are now grumpy from hunger and cant hold it anymore. Someone spots a roadside canteen. On inquiry, we find its a tea place. We all flood it until the owner runs out of cups and has to borrow from the neighbourhood. The tea is finished, there are those who are yet to have enough...
All in all we leave at least revitalised from the little and of course recording the memory of all this.
At the next bus stop we sit for almost three hours waiting for a second ride to Nairobi because its Easter Monday, there is too much traffic and all vehicles have left. Finally, we get onto one and on our way encounter a terrible accident that has involved 5 vehicles, both public and private. We cant see any bodies but there is one of the vehicles in a 5 metre ditch on the side of the road, the other f
our visible vehicles are a complete wreck, and we end up stuck in a snarl up for close to an hour.And all in all, the Lord still remained supreme.
What an adventure!
