An adventure with Tim

Yesterday, at about 7:00 a.m., Tim began making the arrangements necessary for us to go and visit Logologo - a community about 50 km from Marsabit.  The first difficulty was that most of the usual vehicles that Sauti Moja hire for a trip like this were already being used.  With so much food aid being distributed in this area, every spare vehicle is put to use.  At about 10:00 he finally managed to find one - a Toyota 4 wheel drive truck.  The driver told us he would be ready to leave very soon.  In Africa that can mean many things apparently!  Our vehicle arrived about 1:30 I think.  We were definitely a full load - there were 3 in the cab of the truck, and four of us squeezed into the covered canopy - we did have a bench seat, but it was rather cozy fitting ourselves around the huge spare tire!  The other major problem was that it rained very heavy throughout the night and most of the morning.  This is what the Town of Marsabit looked like as we were leaving:

As we left town, it was clear that this was going to be a true adventure.  This road is part of the highway that goes from South Africa to Cairo - but oh my!  I still can't believe that we actually made it.  It is bad enough in the dry season, but with the rains, we had to cope with mud, which was both thick and very slick, and huge big pot-holes.  This is a glimpse of what we were driving through...

Our vehicle was relatively small.  But this road is travelled by many big trucks - often loaded down with food aid to be distributed in various communities along the way.  The only way the drivers are paid is if they deliver their cargo, so they wouldn't turn around.  The other vehicles along the road are buses, filled with passengers.  We passed one bus that had slid off the road, was at about a 45 degree angle in the deep mud, and they had been there all night.  As the sun comes out and dries up some of the mud, people are generally able to dig themselves out and carry on - when we returned this afternoon, the bus was no longer there, so I am glad that people didn't have to spend 2 nights out in the mud!  However, there were many other trucks stuck, often right up to their axles, and so in our little truck, our driver would change into 4 wheel drive (often not soon enough for the male passengers I was sitting with!), and we would find a way to get around these huge trucks, often by driving up on the bank, or through the ruts alongside where the trucks were stuck. Often there was a line of half a dozen of these big trucks or more, just parked and waiting for the roads to dry up enough to keep going.  Here is a picture of one of those trucks:

Apparently one of the ways of describing what it is like to ride over these roads is that the passengers are receiving an African massage.  What Karen told me is that we likely just saved ourselves some money on one of the newest weight-loss machines.  You can buy a machine that you stand on and it vibrates so fast you lose weight.  We figured we vibrated off a fair number of pounds on this trip!  Remember I said it was a 50 km trip?  It took us about 2 1/2 hours to drive it!  Here is a picture of our little truck:

Just so you know that it wasn't all about looking at mud and rocks and ruts, we did see some pretty spectacular scenery as we went up and around the mountain.  Here is one picture looking out over the flatlands:

I will write more about the actual visit in my next post, but I will leave you with a picture that speaks volumes about why we did this trip.  Everywhere we went, the children were very excited to see us.  They laughed and giggled and were very much like children round the world.  They all wanted their pictures taken, and the beauty of a digital camera is that you can show them the picture immediately - which of course led to more belly laughs.  These little boys were quite thrilled to pose for me, and my guess is they would love to know that they are now part of this photo story of my trip to Kenya.  As you look into their faces may you find ways to give thanks for the gift of children worldwide.  And may we all find ways to work to build a world where children everywhere will be safe, and where their bellies will be full at night, and where they, each one of them,will  know themselves to be loved.