Goodbye for another year, Tanzania! This morning we packed up our things, ate our final breakfast at the Eland. I have become partial to using hot sauce on my Spanish omelette in the morning now (to the utter disgust of Larry and delight of Russ). There is only so much that they can do with eggs, and it has gotten a little old for me after two weeks. But it sure is good that I have gotten in the habit of eating breakfast while I’m here, because many days we don’t know when we will be eating our next meal. Today was one of those days. We boarded our shuttle to Nairobi at about 8:15am and were soon on the road. This shuttle was not as full as the one on the way down. The shuttle was the same size as the one we rode on the way down, but there were several seats that were unoccupied. They didn’t even have to put our luggage on the roof – they were able to fit all the luggage in the rear seats of the bus.
As we left Arusha, the roads became bad quickly. They are reconstructing this road, so we were diverted to a side “road” while the main road was being constructed. This really wasn’t much of a road. It had been plowed out for traffic while the main road was under construction, and was very poor. There were rocks protruding from the ground and ruts sinking below the surface. This diversion lasted for an entire hour and by the time we were finished, we felt like dice that had been shaken in cup during a game of Yatzee! There were several times where I didn’t think our bus was going to split at the seams or that the glass in my window was finally going to give in to the strain and shatter under the pressure! It was quite the ride. Finally we made it to the border town of Namanga. There we had to exit out of Tanzania in a customs building on one side and then enter into Kenya at a separate customs building. Our visas were checked, passports stamped and we were off once again.
In Kenya the roads were much better. Here most of the road have been completed or are nearing completion. In the past few years they have brought a lot of heavy equipment into these two countries in order to expedite the construction of their roads. It seems like it is working. I have been impressed with the amount that has been accomplished since last year. Hopefully it will be even better next year.
A picture of the new road (taken from the bad one!)
We arrived at our stop in Nairobi a little late - around 2:30 pm and Charles was waiting for us. He quickly reminded me that he is very “time conscious” – something that is unusual for Africans. It is not unusual for many people to regularly run an hour or more behind schedule here. From the bus station Charles took us back to the Southern Blue Hotel. Charity (the friendly and very helpful desk clerk) was there waiting for us and quickly checked us back in again. We unpacked and then came down to the restaurant for a late lunch. I had Spaghetti. It was good but it wasn’t like at home. Being in Africa sure makes me miss and appreciate Debra’s cooking....
The rest of the afternoon was spent getting ready for church tomorrow morning and for the rapidly approaching East African Joint Pastoral Conference in Kisii. Tomorrow we will be attending church here in the Nairobi area and then boarding a bus for Kisii.
In His service,
Nathanael Mayhew
“But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).
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