Monday, May 7, 2012

Travel home

I am having a hot cup of black coffee in Heathrow Airport as this is being written. Our Saturday excursion to the Lake Nakuru wild game park was probably the most eventful daytrip I have been involved with, even though this is now my seventh mission trip in a row since getting involved with the Vision Kenya Project. We had an early breakfast and were on the road before 6:30am. When we got to the Great Rift Valley overlooks, the valley was still fogged in and while it was beautiful, it was not worth the stop at the time. We did stop for a few minutes and took some good photos further on up the road across the valley. I put my camera into panorama mode and am hoping to end up with a spectacular result once I can work some magic on my computer. As we got to within about 20km of the town of Nakuru, the matatu began making a loud racket and shook like we had blown a tire. We pulled off to the side of the road and the tires were fine. Our driver, Caius, crawled under the van and saw that there were some loose connections in the drivetrain. We let the van cool down and then limped into town and went to a small repair facility that his transport company had used previously. In less than half an hour, they had done a temporary fix that included some wrenching and pumping fluid into the transmission. We were able to continue with our safari while the repair shop procured needed replacement parts. We saw white and black rhinos, gazelles, chevrons, impalas (does this sound like a Chevy commercial or what?), many species of birds, baboons, monkeys and we concluded the trip with an up close and personal look at an obviously injured large female lion resting on the side of the road. We had to quickly close the windows on that side of the van for safety sake. We shortened the safari a little bit to allow time for finishing the vehicle repair, which occurred while we were in a nearby souvenir stand. It actually worked out well, because Pastor Preece was able to get his long sought after Masai warrior club and several others in the group got some neat trinkets. I have a strong suspicion that club will make an appearance in at least one sermon and will be a welcome new addition to Pastor's office decor. Our trip back to Nairobi was uneventful and we did manage to stop for a few minutes at the scenic overlook we had skipped in the morning. Fairly aggressive souvenir vendors came out of the woodwork hawking their wares and more than one of us succumbed to temptation. We arrived at our Nairobi lodgings about an hour and a half later than planned, but we still had time for showers and some pizza before we had to load up our buses prior to heading to the airport. We left for the airport around 6pm rather than our usual 7pm due to concerns about heavy traffic that had dogged us all week with the abundant rains. It's a good thing that we did, since our trip took over two hours, lots of rain and involved several shortcuts I had not seen before. Our drivers are amazing, turning full sized buses around in areas where I couldn't do a three point turnabout with my pickup truck. 

Our time at Heathrow went very smoothly this morning, with the exception of a few of us being required to check our carry ons to make more room due to a nearly full flight back to the U.S. I escaped this fate and I'm glad I did, since I like to have my tablet computer, camera and other small electronics in my possession at all times. We are now traveling over the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland at 35,000 feet speeding along at 547mph. At this point, it looks as if we'll arrive in Houston right on time at 2:45pm. I'll try to get a bit of rest between now and touchdown, since my body is adjusted to an 8 hour time difference. By the time we clear Customs and Immigration checks, it'll be 4pm, but my body will be telling me that it's midnight in Nairobi with a drive home to Austin still ahead of Lupe and myself. As usual, we'll be wrestling more than 50 footlockers and assorted personal items through several checkpoints as a large group, so anything is possible. More to follow after we get home. Thanks be to God for travel mercies and the way He has used each of us in His service!

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