Randy-Last email from Kenya 2010

This story is long but you must read to the end as I recount the story that drove us all to our knees later that night!

Well….finally another ‘breather’ only now I’m sitting in the lounge in London. I’ll try and reflect the best I can, as this has been the craziest trip.

The Aberdare country club experience can only be described as a 9th inning, 7th game of the world series, 3 and 2 count with 2 outs, bases loaded and down by 3 grand slam walk off home run! And I hit the pitch! The last night there we were the only couple for the entire candle light dinner. Wow! Even John Denver music was playing.

We met at 7:00 to start the 13-hour shake and bake ride to Nambale. The last portion of the trip was through the rain while passing miles and miles of sugar cane fields with tractors loaded for the processing plant. We stopped at Juma’s house for dinner and arrived about 10:00 at the Uganda border town ‘Western Ambience’ hotel with A/C and wireless internet that would only partial work but it was nice. I just could never connect to my email.

Friday we spent the day helping the kids with activities and taking pictures. They didn’t realize we had brought the photo printer and planned to give them the prints the next day….but the printer turn out to be a huge ordeal. The transformer for converting fried the power source to the printer…but guess what? In the nowhere bush country town, I found a guy to de-solder 3 resisters and a capacitor and pull ones off and old board he had and got it going again! I don’t know where in the US I could do that. I wanted to offer the guy a job in the test group at the plant right on the spot!

Saturday, the kids went crazy with all the activities, pictures being given out and about 90 pastors came for training…we fell in bed exhausted. Sunday was the quick service/dedication and we left for Migori only to arrive after dark with no room! They had given it away but we found a better place and had a good nights sleep.

Monday, we meet with a bunch of pastors and different churches and had a great traditional meal in a mud hut type church building……now this is where the trip gets REAL exciting so pay attention.

As I stood in the outhouse I thought…this is it the furtherest point of the journey and from here we’re headed home with the animal stop in Maasi Mara. Little did I know the next few hours would be some of the most exciting hours of my life. Clue number 1…when people change from English to their native tongue while looking at a tourist map about directions…you should get involved!

The big debate here was which route to get to the lodge. But if you have ever been to Yellowstone Park you know the lodges can be a days drive apart…..same for Maasi Mara. The ‘decision’ was to go the back road since it didn’t look too bad like rain. Mistake.

The drive was to take about 3 hours and we had 4 and ½ before dark so we THOUGHT we should be good. The road started well enough but slowly gets worse…then the rain came. We are in a 2-wheel drive Nissan van and began the slipping and paying much more attention to the road. I casually make a comment that this is fun and reminds me of our Sunday afternoon 4 wheel drives in Georgia. We head down a hill that is rutted and most likely cannot be returned upward….and come face to face with a flash flood! We are immediately stranded 2 hours down a dirt road and to make matters more fun? We are in Maasi territory and they are also trapped on both sides of the raging river completely covering the bridge and falling into a torrent of brown water.

Out of the van to evaluate. The engineer kicks in (what tools do we have, how can we turn around and get these Maasi guys to push). A quick thought to the flood…will it lower as a linear curve or is the exponential decay…gosh, get the watch and start timing.

As we are pondering what to do, two Maasi warriors in full dress appear on the far side They cut depth checking limbs with razor sharp knives and proceed to risk life and limb to slowly, slowly cross to our side. What’s this about? Why the risk. As they make it, we try to smile and wave but we are totally ignored and they run past. Janice had finished taking pictures and retired to the van to wait out the river crossing possibility. Steve and I stand talking through options. Then I tap Steve on the shoulder and point….the warriors are returning with about 10 to 12 more. Okay now for all those who do not know, Janice has already told us of a nightmare of the van being surrounded by Maasi warriors in which they say ‘give us the short white woman’ and we drive off, leaving her. Oh my goodness, maybe she had a vision.

The warriors approach quickly and Steve and I do have a plan and we are well armed. An element of surprise ….us being able to fight….gives me hope….and I’m thinking ‘is this it? I hope I die well in the fight. Maybe they are not used to fighting as we have been taught. But they have weapons too! I remember when facing multiple opponents…remember to go for the strongest first, a loud yell to scare them….my mind is spinning.

The Maasi sail past? What? To the river they go. It turns out that 2 Maasi children have fallen into the flood and unfortunately have drowned. These men were trying to retrieve the bodies. ..I reflect. I must be tired and have an over active imagination. Back to the flood.

We’ve now waited about the 1-½ hours to spare that we had. I vote to try and turn the van around knowing if the van goes down the river we are really in trouble. It’s too big of a risk and the water is still too high. Joseph (the driver) takes off to cross regardless. Janice jumps from the van and we watch as somehow it defies all the physics and makes it across. Now for the second interesting point ….Janice’s ‘reoccurring’ nightmare over the years is having to cross a river in the flood. (Wow two converging visions on the same day!) Her neck turns red from the stress but she doesn’t hesitates as we successfully inch through the raging river.…minutes seem to turn into hours as we cross…. she doesn’t laugh with relief as I expected, but jumps in and says ‘let’s get the heck out of Dodge!’…. but to no avail. We now have cattle as far as we can see in front of us and we are trying to get up a mud-bogged hill. They make a solid wall as they stop again and again. Another 15 precious minutes lost to get them out of the way.

Now…darkness is not too far but we have a person who is to meet is in the next village to show us the way. He’s not there (of course) so we are directed to go to the next junction and take a right. When we ask several people how far it is to our overnight lodging we are told everything from 20 – 30 km. We later find out it’s actually 100! Lesson here….do not ask men that travel by bicycle how far something is…and just accept that they always say ‘the road is good.”

The road would not have been a huge problem if we had been driving 4 wheel drive and had someone following us in another 4 wheel drive with a winch. BUT NO! we were in 2-wheel drive. After Joseph the driver proves to be totally inexperienced driving in the mud I was put in the driver seat to get us through the 20- 30 ft long mud holes. In front of us a car has flooded out and was pushed out of the way. My brain goes into survival mode again…drive on the LEFT not right, the steering wheel is on the right not left and the panel display is backwards as also how the lights work, the van tracks totally differently than my jeep….why did I say that I drive in this stuff? Pride comes before the fall and I think of Charis and her boast to ring a chicken’s neck but really couldn’t when it came down to it. So…here I am…going to be responsible for bogging down the van, sleeping with the animals and who knows what the night ghosts might bring.

The first hole throws Janice in the air and re-distributes the packing and passengers but we’re still moving! Team driving with Steve, we stare at the road trying to keep moving as fast as possible but guessing the best route. A hyena passes in front…that’s not good…. if we got to push. Finally, after miles and miles of the best mud bogging imaginable we arrive at a junction. How, I do not know, the cell phone works and we call the lodge for advice. They encourage us to try the lodge only 4 km down the road to the right. We go but the road quickly turns into a pig trail…we back track….find another pig trail. We stop to evaluate and what do we see? A flashlight ….a Maasi father and family have come to see what is going on. We find out that the lodge we are attempting has been closed for 2 years…back to the main pig trail.

We decide to try for the next lodge another 22 km in front. More mud, rocks…..I even get the van teetering twice on only two tires such that we have to ‘rock the van’ to get enough traction to move. I check the mileage on the dash…it hasn’t moved and doesn’t work. There are minimal signs that are unclear, but somehow (maybe with all the encouragement we are giving the LORD) we turn sharply over a partially collapsed bridge to come to a gate. The gatekeeper cuts out the lone light and stares at us from his dung/mud hut. He is trying to figure out whether he needs to call for reinforcements. With much talking he is convinced we are truly desperate. Later… as we recall this moment we believe we have experienced what it must be like to arrive at heavens gate and…. then it is thrown open wide as the gatekeeper says “Welcome!”

I pause for a moment as everyone unloads in jubilation ….I think of two things…..one is that this must have been what Peter Capstick (Africa’s most notable hunter) wrote about after a hair raising experience during a leopard hunt….he needed 3 matches to light his cigarette afterwards due to the adrenaline ( I don’t smoke, but it would take at least 3 for me now if I did) and the second thought was of the 10 healed lepers from the bible story that only 1 returned to thank him for the healing…well it was 5 for 5 on this ‘thank you LORD’.

Giving thanks to God for the positive ending to this overwhelming experience was not done while lying on our backs or sitting upright that night. For the first time in many years Janice and I (and later we found out Steve in his tent) got down on our knees to properly thank the good Lord!

The next day is perfect. We have ended up at a tent camp that was in the top ten best places to stay in the word in 2009! Isn’t God funny! The game drive is unparalleled.

Yesterday, we headed to Nairobi to meet some new Navigator friends Bob and Patty Meredith. We share hunting stories and life joys over dinner. We get to watch a hippo hunt from last year that Bob videoed and I feel a tinge of envy about Zambia dangerous game hunts. (but I think I have an invite!)

So now we’re about to board for Atlanta….totally perplexed yet a 4th time of Kenya experience. I fail to accurately portray it in words!

See you soon

Randy/dad xxxxxoooooxxxxx