Thursday, November 12, 2009
“On the road again...” Today was a long travel day. We weren’t sure what to expect for travel time to Kampala, because we received estimates from “six hours” to “twelve hours.” We had agreed to meet Jeremiah and Eli at the Kisii Hotel and then go from there to the bus station. But right now we are carrying quite a bit of extra luggage for the people in Mois Bridge from our church in Phoenix. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if we were taking a private car, but when you are taking public transportation, you have to carry your luggage from one place to the next. Because of this I decided to walk to the Kisii Hotel and meet with Jeremiah and Eli. From there we walked to the bus station to get our tickets and to ask if they would pick up Russ, Larry and our luggage at the Zonic Hotel. It all worked pretty smoothly, except for the fact that we had to wait for half an hour for the bus to fill up! It was an interesting 30 minutes “people watching” at the Kisii bus station though. There were people selling newspapers, drinks, snack, and trinkets. I almost bought a pair of reading glasses for Larry (since he gave his away at the conference), but I wasn’t sure what power he needed. Whatever your need, get it right here!
Finally we were ready to go and we sped through town to the Zonic to pick up Larry and Russ. We squeezed everything (and everyone) in and were off to Kisumu, Kenya. Kisumu was our first stop on this trip, almost straight north of Kisii. It was mid morning now and the sun was starting to beat down. I was in the window seat behind the driver and began to feel it heating up my right arm. It was warm. Kisumu is a two hour journey from Kisii, and we arrived there by 11:30am. In Kisumu we transferred to another Matatoo that was going to the border town of Busia. This was another two hour journey. The town of Kisumu is nestled into a corner of Kenya and borders Lake Victoria. We caught a glimpse of the Lake a few times from the road after leaving Kisumu, but it was always in the distance. We hope to be able to see more of this important African resource when we reach Kampala, which is also right on the lake in Uganda.
Crossing the equator (to the north this time)
After reaching Busia, we had to exit our Matatoo and cross the border on foot since the bus would not cross. There were no problems crossing the border other than the very long walk through “no man’s land” between the two countries. I exchanged some money at the border since the banks would be closed when we arrived in Kampala, and we now had to use the Ugandan Shilling for our expenses. With all the extra luggage, we were all carrying more than one bag. It was very hot and we were all a bit expended from the walk so we decided to stop at a vendor on the side of the road for a cool drink. After our reprieve, we located a bus which would take us to Kampala direct.
Once the bus filled up and we got moving, we found that Uganda was a very prosperous country. Among their resources we saw: bricks, lumber, sugar cane, corn, beans, rice, tea, beer, hydro electric power, and much more. It is a very prosperous country and called “The pearl of Africa.” We even crossed the Nile River where it comes out of Lake Victoria and heads north to empty into the Mediterranean thousands of miles away.
The Nile river - looking upstream
It was a four hour trip from the border to Kampala but it took us six hours because of a severe accident which completely shut down the highway we were on. The accident happened just a minute or so ahead of us. A matatoo and lorry drove off the road and the lorry crushed the matatoo, killing everyone inside. How sad, and yet how beneficial. Beneficial in that it should serve as a reminder to us of how important our work as Christians is – in Africa, in America, or where ever we might be.
Jeremiah standing in front of our mini bus waiting for the accident to clear.
We finally arrived in Kampala at around 10:00pm after a 13 hour journey. The Clarlton Hotel we stayed in was very nice and yet very reasonable (a little over $25 per person) for a large city. It even had complementary wired internet which was available in our room. It may be the nicest hotel we have stayed in while in Africa. Too bad we will only be here for one night!
In His service,
Nathanael Mayhew“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).
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