Day 15- January 10, 2011

For our last team time in Kenya, where we had 2 Maasai warriors walk in and watch our worship time. That was so awesome; one even joined us in singing…kinda. After we got done we crashed for a few hours of sleep before our morning safari. The morning safari… we saw everything from the day before plus a CHEETAH! It was awesome! Well we had to drive 3 hours on dirt and field and mud and rocks just to get back to civilization. Well, that was risky. Kenya has a lot of corruption and that corruption is still out in the middle of nowhere (where we were driving through). Well, as we passed a “farm” area, I see 10 guys sprinting out ahead of the 3 matatus (safari vans). They were trying to set up a blockade to trap us! I happened to be in the first of the 3 matatus and we got through because we busted through the blockade, but the other 2 behind us didn’t.  Oh crap! We were in some serious trouble here and the adrenaline pumping through my veins probably wasn’t helping my thought process. So in my mind, this situation was much more intense than it needed to be. Granted, it was still pretty intense. Well, our driver, William (45-50 years old), gets out to try and reason with the people to let the other 2 matatus through. At this point, I notice a machete handle sticking out under his seat. For the next ten minutes my hand was on it basically ready to do work on some Kenyan thugs that were carrying big sticks. Well, after ten minutes of tons of Swahili talking and most likely, their threats being paid off, we were on our way and the other 2 matatus finally joined up with us probably a ½ mile up the road a while later. I was freaking out, but when we were on our way… we were on our way and that was in the past. Well, the matatus got stuck in the mud once more before we reached paved roads. Paved roads have their problems too. There are random speed bumps in small towns, barb wire blockades in some places along the roadside. These are there basically for the same reason as we were stopped by the logs thrown out in front of us earlier in the ride. Fortunately after much prayer, we weren’t stopped. William shared with me how he has been shot at many times while driving tours as well. Wow, it kinda breaks my heart to hear about such corruption. I guess it’s true… T.I.A. (This is Africa). Also, by this point we are slightly behind schedule. Hopefully we catch our flight tonight in Nairobi…

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