I left off right before heading to the Crusade in
the Soweto slum. After the Kids Camp in Bongai we
loaded up on the bus. The driver,
Joshua, had backed the bus from the road where it was usually parked into the
parking lot of the church. Keep in mind
this is not a large lot. We all loaded
onto the bus and Joshua started to pull out through the front gates. But the bus wouldn’t fit through! He made multiple, multiple attempts, but the
bus just wouldn’t make the turn and fit through the gates! He barely managed to turn the bus around
inside the parking lot to attempt to back out.
Nope. Not happening. We had said our good-byes and waved good-bye,
but then we didn’t leave! It was almost
comical. Poor Joshua caused some damage
to the gates in his attempts to get free of the parking lot! Also keep in mind that the parking lot is
just gravel – no paving. After 1 ½ hours
someone heard the suggestion many of us had that we all get OFF the bus and
have Joshua try to pull out with an empty bus (which is how it was when it
pulled into the parking lot).
BINGO! It fit through on the
first try. We waved good-bye, AGAIN, and
drove away.
We drove to the Soweto slum for the crusade. There was a grandstand set up and the
Crossroads church band was preparing to play.
Mike Rozell from Potter’s Field was there and prepared to give his
lesson. You would have thought
that Justin Bieber’s tour bus had pulled in when we arrived. The bus was mobbed and we were surrounded as
we exited the bus. Talk like feeling
like a rock star!
The concert was awesome.
Most of the Crossroads team were sitting beside or behind the stage
except for Danielle, our photographer, who decided to climb a nearby water
tower which caused quite a stir. I
decided to go hang out in the crowd. I
wasn’t sure who or what was out there, but wanted to check it out. The children were kind of reserved and leery,
but I stood there among them and sang and danced like an idiot white
woman. Several other team members joined
the crowd. The crowd eventually loosened up! Then Mike Rozell, and his wife Pam, took the
stage. If you’ve never heard of Mike and
Pam Rozell you are missing out. Mike is
a professional potter. He was a worldly
potter until he met Pam. The two of them
have a fabulous story of their meeting, marriage, and eventual transition into
ministry in Africa. Mike tells his story
and likens the Ultimate Potter as Jesus crafting and forming the clay vessels –
us. How the clay doesn’t know what it’s
going to become. Only the Potter knows. The clay has to submit to the Potter’s
hands. How the Potter reaches inside the
vessel and cleans out all the gunk so that it can be filled with the Potter’s
hand. SO COOL! I failed to mention that while Mike is
telling this story he is on stage with a 50 pound block of clay making a vase
before your eyes. Every once in a while Mike takes a
break from talking and Pam tells part of their story and sings songs she has
written. Awesome!
Mike concludes by inviting the audience to give themselves
in to the Potter’s hands, to submit their lives to Christ. He starts a prayer inviting people who want
to give their lives over to Christ to raise their hand. I peek.
Hands are going up all over the audience (most of whom are standing in
this dirt parking lot). Mike keeps
praying. Hands continue to go up. Eventually Mike invites those people to come
down front and meet with a pastor. I
talked with Mike after the crusade was over and he said he was simply
overwhelmed by the response. He thinks
approximately 50 people raised their hands and people came forward. It was so exciting to see.
The band played some more.
I starting rubbing shoulders with some of the kids. A couple of us used our “paperless story”
bracelets to tell the story of Jesus with the kids. After you tell the story you give them the
bracelet so they can go and tell the story to someone else. The bracelets have 6 plastic beads on
them. The story goes like this:
The
yellow bead represents heaven. Heaven is
a wonderful place where God lives and the streets
are paved with gold. But we can’t get to
heaven because of our sin (black bead).
So Jesus died on the
cross (red bead) and shed his blood taking on all of our sin so that we can be washed clean (white bead) and
grown in Jesus (green bead). The
bracelet is held on with blue beads
which represent baptism into Christ.
I talked with a bunch of kids and gave away my
bracelet. I let them run their hands
through my “funny” straight, soft hair.
That was great fun. We eventually
loaded back on the bus for the drive “home.”
What an extraordinary Saturday evening!
Sunday morning arrived very early. The 16 of us headed off to safari hopped on
the bus and headed to a small municipal airport outside of Nairobi for the 45
minute flight. We were only allowed a
backpack. The planes were single-prop
and only held about 12 passengers. I sat
behind the co-pilot and had a great view.
I’ve never flown on such a small airplane. YIKES!
The flight was uneventful.
We touched down in the middle of nowhere! No tarmac, no airstrip. Nuttin!
Just trees and brown grass! There were
4 vehicles awaiting us. They took our
backpacks and we loaded, randomly, into the trucks. The drive to the camp was only 5-10
minutes. The camp was beautiful. We were in a mobile camp – not at the main
camp which was full. I didn’t care. I loved that we had a camp all to ourselves. There was a main tent for meals, a large
cleared meadow and a mostly dry riverbed.
There were chairs set up under trees and around the fire ring. We were greeted with glasses of a tasty punch
made from FRESH squeezed pineapple and orange juices with Sprite added in. Oh my, it was soooo good. Our group had to take 2 planes and the second
plane was delayed about an hour. The
rest of us was shown to our tents and encouraged to relax. We were told that we needed to stay on the
short grass, not go in the tall grass and after dark NEVER go anywhere without
a Masai warrior escort. YIKES! Here we were out on the Masai Mara surrounded
by all things hazardous. But it was so
beautiful and peaceful.
Once the other group arrived they fed us a lunch of really tasty
spaghetti and fresh fruit. It was
really, really good. They wait on you
hand and foot. Once lunch was over we
loaded up to go to the Masai village nearby to hold a free medical clinic for
the members of the Masai Mara. We rode
over and set up in a small, rudimentary schoolhouse. We were told that some of the people coming
into the clinic had walked for 2 days just to get medical help. They wore beautiful, colorful clothing. The children didn’t know what to do with the
jump ropes or coloring books we pulled out.
Most of the Masai have little to no hair. One of our team members had also brought
plastic hairbands and barrettes. The fact
that they didn’t have any hair didn’t stop them from wearing the hairbands on
top of their heads! Even the men! It was pretty comical. I worked inside the clinic with the line of
people and keeping them moving when one of our medical staff finished with
their last patient. I believe we saw
about 120 “patients” in less than 4 hours with 3 medical staff. We had our own “pharmacy” set up so that
after the patient saw the “doctor” they could get the proper medications. There were lots of meds given out for worms,
antibiotics, etc. The village chief
showed up, too.
After we had seen every person that wandered in we closed up
and rode back to camp. Our camp was
surrounded, as much as possible, by a fence of Acacia branches. This is what the locals use to keep the wild
animals away from their homes and livestock.
The huge thorns are great deterrents to the wild animals. I don’t think it completely encompassed the
compound because we had evidence of Zebra poo in our camp and we could hear hyenas
roaming around at night.
When we arrived back at camp we were treated to hot showers
at our tents. The staff had to heat the
water and carry it to each tent. There
were 16 of us on safari. 2 tents with 3
single women in each. 3 tents with a
married couple in each, and 2 tents with 3 single guys in each. We were served dinner and they had made a
fire for us. Night fell. Animal sounds surrounded us. We sat around the fire and enjoyed the sounds
of Africa. We were introduced to our
Masai warriors who would guard our camp all night. It was so cool. We eventually broke off into groups , and
were escorted back to our tents by a warrior carrying a kerosene lamp and a
long spear. Gosh, did I feel safe! A warrior with a spear vs. a hyena or
lion. My roommate Kathryn and I kept
pace with him for fear of our lives! The
tents were really spacious and comfortable.
There were 3 single beds in our tent.
A sink area, a dressing table area, an actual flushing porcelain toilet,
and a shower. All the comforts of
home! The beds were super cozy. It wasn’t very cold. At least not to me. I slept well except I kept Danielle awake with
my sleep apnea breathing. Since there
was no electricity I didn’t bother dragging my machine out on safari.
Morning came quickly.
We were up at 6 for a protein filled breakfast. Bacon, eggs, juice, toast, oatmeal. Tasty!
We were loaded up in the trucks to head out at 7 a.m. Being on safari is a very interesting
experience. We had the choice to ride in
1 of three different trucks. Each of the
trucks was a bit different. One kind of
reminded me of a VW Van. The top lifted
up and you could stand up and be in the shade to watch the wildlife. It had doors and windows. The truck I chose had a canvas tarp roof, no
doors or windows, just lots of fresh Masai Mara air! It was pretty high off the ground, thank
goodness. The third truck was lower to
the ground, had no windows or doors, and had a bench seat on the roof. I thought about taking a turn up there, but
there was nothing to hold onto and I feared I would fall off! I was very content in my truck.
We encountered antelope, wildebeest, zebra, and finally
giraffe! We were told that the “Big 5”
to see on safari in Africa are Lion, Cheetah, Leopard, Water Buffalo, and
Rhino. We were on the “hunt” to see as
many as possible. The 3 trucks took off
in separate directions and had radios to stay connected. If 1 found a particular important animal they
could radio the others to come see. Each
truck carried 2 spare tires which came in handy. The VW Van truck was the first to get a
flat. We were told not to wander too far
off while they fixed it. Once it was
fixed we were off again. Our truck got a
flat later in the day. The other truck
never did get a flat as far as I know.
The safari crew had packed a lunch for us and we stopped hear the
Tanzania border, on a riverbed, to have lunch of sandwiches, fruit, soda and
cookies. We parked next to this really
cool tree that I enjoyed photographing.
Some of us ventured, with permission, down to the riverbed and stuck our
toes in a shallow bit of water. Then we
were off again! Riding out in the open
on the Masai Mara was such a stupendous experience. Wind in my hair, sun shining. It was so beautiful. We saw so many different animals. By the end of the day we had all seen 4 of
the Big 5. The only elusive animal was
the Rhino. The leopard gave us a run for
our money. At one point late in the
afternoon we got a call on the radio that there was lioness sighted so we took
off. Matura, our driver and Masai guide,
pulled around her from behind and pulled up within about 15-20 feet of
her. She just sat there. I couldn’t decide if I was scared or
what! We were so close! That was what it was like with our encounter
with a mother cheetah and her 3 cubs, too.
So close!
The day started to fade out and it was time to head back to
camp. Only we were still in search of a
better view of the leopard! By the time
we finally headed back the sun was setting and the driver of the VW Van truck
was getting quite anxious to get back and NOT be stranded on the Mara in the
dark! Matura was unfazed. He drove for an hour, in the dark, and got us
back to camp by about 8 p.m. It’s really
strange to be riding along, in the dark, and have a herd of giraffe or zebra
appear in the headlights! Cuz when it’s
dark on the Mara, IT’S DARK! You can’t
see squat!
After dinner several members of the Masai showed up to dance
around our fire for us. Talk about
cool. Oh, beyond cool! They would “sing,” dance, and have the
traditional jumping contests. Some of
those guys get some serious air! At 1
point one of the female Masai invited my roomie Kathryn to dance with
them. Oh the joy on her face was
priceless! I took some video – which
came out all dark – and lots of pictures for Kathryn to remind her of dancing
with the Masai warriors on the Mara. Now
that’s an experience of a lifetime!
Keith (our head safari guide), invited anyone who wanted to,
to rise at 5:30 the next morning to leave camp at 6:00 for a 3-4 hour safari
ride. I was not initially interested
because I was so beat. But then Kathryn
said “I’m game. I may never get there
again and I want to experience everything I can.” Well shoot.
How could I go against such great logic!
I figured I could sleep when I got home.
So 4 of us arose in the dark the next morning – Kathryn, Juan, Andre,
and me - and went off in a truck with a driver/guide and a spotter. It’s beautiful beyond description watching
the morning break on the Masai Mara. So
peaceful. So wonderful. We went a different direction than the day
before. The Mara is thousands and
thousands of square miles of African plain.
Beyond comprehension. But low and
behold one of the first animals we encountered within the first hour was the
elusive Rhino! So in the end only 4 of
the 16 on safari actually got to see the Big 5!
I couldn’t thank Kathryn enough for encouraging me to go out that last
morning. We returned to camp around 9:30
and had breakfast. Then it was time to
pack up for the long trip back home.
Tuesday morning we flew back to Nairobi in our little
puddle-hopper planes. We were given a
souvenir shopping trip in downtown Nairobi before going back to the campus of
ANU to gather the rest of our luggage and eventually back to the international
airport in Nairobi. Our flight left
Nairobi at 11:00 p.m. Keep in mind some
of us have been up since 5:30 that morning – out on safari. It was a 4 1/2 hour flight from Nairobi to
Dubai. We had a 3 hour layover in
Dubai. Some slept on the floor in the
airport. Some (like Kathryn and me)
managed to score a “lounge” chair in the terminal and could at least lean back
and sleep. I think we got about an hour
of sleep. We left Dubai for Seattle around
7:30 a.m. I was exhausted. I think I ended up sleeping for about 5 hours
on the plane. We ate. We watched movies. We got up and walked around. Anything to kill 14 hours on a plane!
We landed in Seattle around 1:00 Wednesday afternoon. We had to go retrieve our luggage, go through
customs, and then re-check our luggage for the flight to Portland. We had about a 2 hour layover in Seattle and
eventually landed in Portland around 5 pm on Wednesday.
I’m telling you, leaving Africa on “Tuesday night,” flying
through 10 hours of time-zone changes, and being in transit for 2 days really
wipes you out! But when I got off the
plane in Seattle I couldn’t wait to see my husband and sons. I was the first person, from our group, to
get into the terminal and I ran to hug my family.
