Participant Blogs

East Africa A breath of fresh air
Traveling through Africa has truelly been a great challenge  Because of my tall body and long legs I very much disliked the overlanding parts of the trip. What has been amazingis how a taxidriver can fit 25 people into a 19 seater plus the cunducter, and all that with some kind of animal on top .Over the year I have become more humble and more teachable to my team and the  people around me . I must admit that I struggle  sometimes when Taxi drivers try to trick you , to keep my cool. God has been speaking to me about that, and for good reason two. So when we were in Ethiopia Abel extended his stay by simply loosing his passport so the 5 of us with Kagiso  flying because of medical reasons and all set out to kenia we soon met 2 dudes from Nottingham  UK. The 7 of us traveled all the way from Addis Ababa  Ethiopia to Kenya Nairobi.
The travel down to Moyale (the border)was very nice, we had gteat seats with lots of legspace  and lots to talk about .And that’s where Murphy’s law kicked in, for those who don’t know : for every action there is a direct and opposite reaction. In Moyale we booked our 24our bus to Nairobi and went to a nice restaurant for some boerewors and bread. While eating much to our surprise it wasn’t meat sausages but infact blood sausages. Wow what a breath of fresh air . The first night in Kenya and I had already made a friend . We talked into the early morning about a common subjects : military army , Life and love for gadgets. The next morning we walked to the busstop for our cheapest way to get to get to Nairobi.
It was cheap for a reason.And so began the longest and worst most uncomfortable bus trip of my whole Life Do you know what a power plate is ? It’ s a machine in the form of a pad that vibrates until your legs itch, It is said to increase bone density and stimulates musle groth and all that Jazz. I think God intended to make the road from Moyale to Isioloone long power plate exercise session. So for 12 hours  we were ratling away at the back of a truck with seats  and the Bus coworkers being high on chat ( a type of leaf that makes you stay awake and Hipper) while the security guard‘s .303 rifle barrel wading from side to side in your face while he falls asleep. Even then I met awesome people like a man whose goal was to point out any living creature next to the road, whether it was a goat to a gazelle   or the man from Nairobi visiting his grandparents in the middle of nowhere. The point is that all of them wanted to have a conversation, it was as if skin color didn’t matter and we all were equal. Some time before sundown the “bus” turned around and went searching for something. It turned out to be something that looked like a pump that broke clean off the frame of the bus. They picked it up threw it into the bus and there we went on. After Isiolo there was Tarmac and so ended our exercise session  for the year.
It truly was the worst 24hours of the whole Explore Africa experience. It was all worth it.   Nairobi felt just like Home there was big shopping malls with Steers and Panaroties  and ice-cream and every thing .It was the best reward after 24hours of Hell…
One of the Stupidest  things I’ve ever done this year was sending back my sleeping bag. I have to start from the beginning. When we were in Niger it was so hot so when the chance arose that I could send my sleeping bag, I didn’t hesitate. Soon me and Abel realized that East Africa wasn’t hot enough for just our Ethiopian air blankets. In Nairobi I slept in  my tent and literally put on all my clothes on top of each other and when that didn’t work I climbed into my bag for warmth. The next day I bought me a gray dog blanket and that is now my main source of warmth at night. Kenya is the best country this whole year. Our Ministry point is so much fun . We worked under the simple churches here and the Pastor here had us doing discovery Bible groups , so everyone was actively a part of the conversation we will soon be going to Uganda to go work with the churches here .
God had blessed us with awesome people. People that makes us feel at home and feeds us with more than we can eat.