Elephants, Flat Tires and IV's; My Odyssey Back to Mbita

This week consisted of a police officer asking for a bribe, 2 tire punctures, some beautiful African wildlife, 4 sleepless nights, a leaky fuel tank, two nights of vomitting, 2 tires shredded, being stranded in the hot African sun with swarms of flies for hours, a case of pneumonia and malaria!

Dec. 30
I don’t know if the difficulty in sleeping was due to the excitement of returning to Kenya, being sick, or because there were a lot of things on my mind. Once we landed at 6:30 am, I was really happy to see the beautiful Kenyan faces, hear people speaking in Kiswahili and be in a familiar setting. After spending an hour in the immigration line (even though I was the 6th person in line), I quickly found my bags and started searching for my friend David Njau who had been taking care of my vehicle and came to the airport to pick me up. After a short search, he finally appeared and we headed into town. I met my friend Tracy for breakfast and we were able to catch up on the past 4 months over a great breakfast at Java House. I then proceeded to the Mennonite Guest House to pick up Jenny and my good friend Jay Forseth. They both arrived the previous night. Jay was the Athletic Director at Rocky Mountain College when I was in school and playing basketball. He was also our advisor for our Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and a spiritual mentor to me, one of the men I most respect in my life and hope I grow to be like. He is now a pastor in Columbus Montana and is taking his first trip overseas to investigate a few ministries their church wants to support. I get to help host Jay and hang out with him a little bit for the 12 days he is in Kenya.

After another night of no sleep, I picked up Jay and Jenny and we headed out for the world famous Masai Mara to do a short safari. I was wide awake and excited to take on the challenge of driving on the rough Kenyan roads again. Jay had just asked how often I get stopped by the police road blocks and I answered by saying hardly ever as we passed through one. About two minutes later I got pulled over. The police officer asked me to get out of the vehicle and wanted my Kenyan license. I gave it to him and then he started asking for me to show him my first aid kit, reflector triangles, and fire extinguisher. I was totally honest with him as he started making threats and asking for a bribe. He kept asking, “What am I going to eat tonight?” I kept responding, “I know they have good food in Nairobi and I am sure your wife will take good care of you.” We went round and round for several minutes until there was a breakthrough. He concluded by saying, “I kind of like you, please go.” I said, “Thank you Jesus. As I returned to the car I realized that Jay and Jen had been praying throughout.

We continued on to Narok, pulled into the gas station and found flat tire number 1. Flat tires are pretty common for any trip driving on Kenyan roads. The gas station attendant patched it up, but it was still leaking so they had to send someone for a bigger patch (not really an Autozone down the road, so this took a little while). I didn’t have much confidence it would work, but amazingly enough, the 2 hour process fixed it. Eventually we arrived in the Mara and enjoyed the beautiful Kenyan wildlife- elephants, giraffes, hyenas, monkeys, baboons, wildebeest, zebras, lions, leopards and many other things.

Dec. 31
Finally, after being up for 36 hours, I was happy to crawl into bed. My happiness didn’t last long because around 1:00 in the morning I started getting the shakes and couldn’t get warm no matter how much clothes I put on or how many blankets I covered myself with. Fifteen minutes later the vomiting began in 20 minute intervals and continued for about four hours (I think around 12 different episodes). By the end, I had nothing left to vomit, so I was dry heaving and coughing up some bile. Jay and Jenny tried to find a clinic or a doctor for me, but the local clinic which was a couple kilometers away didn’t treat whites and the next closest place was 30 minutes away on rough roads and didn’t open for a few more hours. I decided to try and sleep it off. The other two went on a Masai walk, exploring different kinds of dung and seeing an African Cape Buffalo that had been trampled by a mad elephant the previous night. I remembered hearing that tussle over one of my vomiting bouts.

After a little sleep, a little fluids and a light lunch I was feeling better so we decided to go on another game drive. This seemed like such a good idea at the time. We enjoyed watching the hippos playing in the Mara River and saw some other great wildlife. We were satisfied and were ready to head home when we smelt fuel. Upon further investigation, we noticed that it was just a drip and ventured onward. We stopped at a resort to use the restroom and saw the trail of fuel my vehicle was leaving behind. It wasn’t just a leak, it was gushing like a water fountain and my tank would have been empty in a few hours. We were fortunate to find a good mechanic at the Balloon Safari place as twilight crept in on New Year’s Eve. He did a meticulous job of draining the fuel, taking the tank off, draining, cleaning and welding. The leak was gone and the tank was fixed back underneath.

It was getting late, around 8:30 pm and no cars are supposed to be driving in the Mara past 7:00 pm because of obvious dangers- bad roads and the wildlife. We were happy to be finished and ready to head home to celebrate the New Year’s, but as I was backing down the ramp, one of the tires nudged the side and knocked off a place that had been patched up before. The needle had gotten stuck in it when it was fixed several months ago so the slight touch of the ramp opened up the old wound and there was flat tire number 2. Our kind mechanic asked if we could just put on the spare and get the other one fixed tomorrow. That did not work because when we went to take off the spare we realized it was totally shredded (here we have flat tire number3). The friend of mine that had kept the car for me while I was in the states obviously didn’t take very good care of things. If someone can explain to me why someone would put a shredded tire back on a car, I would love to hear a good explanation. So the mechanic obliged us to continue working late at night on New Year’s Eve to fix the flat on the other tire so that we could return to our lodging. It was finally complete and we headed back through the dark Mara around 9:15 with many eyes glowing at us in the dark of night through the tall grass. The resort staff greeted us on our return with a great outside dinner and we were entertained by the Masai dancers jumping and yelping. After dinner they had a naming ceremony and I received a Masai name that means “Most Blessed One” (kind of ironic, huh?)

Jan. 1
Finally, a good night of sleep ensued. We woke up early and I thought it would be better to go out the main gate of the park and head towards Narok which is a much longer way, but more travelled and a little safer since we don’t have a spare tire. Travelling anywhere in Kenya without a good spare is pretty stupid. But I was convinced to go out a different gate which is much closer to Bomet, our destination. Before reaching the gate we were able to see a lioness laying in the grass and a leopard high in a tree. The road outside the Talek Gate was much less travelled. We had a cook from our lodge that was from Bomet s guiding us down this road I had never been on. We took a “shortcut” down a road that used to be a toll road but they had stopped taking money and they had stopped working on the road. As we drove through a ravine I noticed through the side-view mirror that the tread was coming off my right rear tire. Alas, flat tire number 4. Without many options, we decided that the shredded spare tire would be better than the other shredded tire and quickly changed it. After 1-2 turns of the tire, it became just as bad. We were in the middle of nowhere, on a road no other vehicle would be passing by, with no cell phone coverage and only three tires!

There wasn’t much of a choice. We ended up driving the car on the rim with a little tread hanging to it another kilometer or so to a junction where there was a few mud huts. As soon as we stopped a van carrying some American visitors to the Mara drove past. The driver said he would drop off the visitors 8 km down the road and return to help us. We were happy that we already had help and that we reached a place where vehicles were travelling. At that point we didn’t know it was the only vehicle that passed for the next four hours we were stranded.
Meanwhile, Jenny called her friend at Tenwek Hospital, just North of Bomet. Dr. Dan Galat found Jay’s friend, Jeff Stanfield and they both headed out for the two hour drive to try and rescue us. We jacked up the car and took off the bad wheel to prepare for the help when it would arrive. The problem was we were on an incline and the jack tipped over and now the weight of the car all collapsed to that side. We could no longer lift the car up. We tried digging and many other options to no avail as the few local children gathered around to laugh at us. The ironic thing is they had a toy car they had made out of wire… with four good tires. Eventually with nothing else to do, we climbed back in the car and tried to pass the time playing cards. Jay and Jenny had great attitudes throughout. It was not easy to enjoy the game of cards with the hot African Sun beating down on us and flies everywhere. The flies were in our eyes, ears, mouth and impossible to get away from. It may have something to do with the pleasant Masai dung sticks laying around the area.

After about three hours the van finally came back through. We combined his jack with ours and were able to jack the vehicle again. Thirty minutes later, Dan and Jeff showed up. I believe one of Dan’s first comments was, “This is kind of like your own little purgatory.” I think he was referring to being stranded in the middle of nowhere with the hot sun and the flies everywhere. We went through several options, but decided that since our tires were the same size we could put his spare on my vehicle and drive back to Bomet. As the rest of us were busy with other things, the Kenyan van driver put the wheel on my car. We all jumped in the different vehicles and headed out. Within ten feet I could tell something was not right. The wheel was wobbling and going inside out. We stopped, jacked it up for the fifteenth time, but couldn’t get the wheel off. It had been wedged on there and wasn’t the exact right size. We fought and struggled with it for about an hour with no success. Ideas were flowing left and right. Problem solving from six people should have rendered some pretty great ideas. No.

What do we do now? Finally we decided to drive it as it is to the Mara Safari Club which was about 8 km away. We drove about 5-10 km/hr. The mechanic there was able to get the wheel off, but he had no spares to fit. So we left my vehicle there and the six of us loaded all of our bags (the ones with which we had flown back from the U.S.) and my two wheels and piled in Jeff’s vehicle to drive the two hours back to Tenwek. Packed like sardines, we scooted across the bumpy road.

Here We Go Again!

By the time we reached Tenwek we were so happy to be welcomed into a friend’s home where a warm shower, fish tacos and a comfortable bed were awaiting us. I was completely exhausted from the three red-eye flights, travelling, being sick and time outside in the scorching sun. I fell asleep instantly, but soon my restless friend from two nights before woke me and the shakes began again around 1:00 am. I tried to warm myself up, but could not. A few minutes later I started vomiting in fifteen minute intervals once again. Fortunately, this time I was staying with a physician. Dan and his wife Heather woke up when they heard me heaving. Before I knew it, there was a nurse in room setting up an IV and they brought in an anti-vomiting injection and other medicine. Because of the quick help, my suffering only lasted a few hours before I was knocked out.

The Weekend
I woke up the next morning feeling a little better, but pretty weak. After a series of consultations and a chest x-ray we figured out that I had pneumonia and possibly some lingering malaria that has been dormant for the past four months. I had nausea, shortness of breath, a nagging cough, headaches, fever and a painful sideache for much of the weekend.

I was so grateful to have such a great family like the Galat’s that insisted on me staying for the weekend. I wanted to return to Mbita on Friday so bad, but knew that it was not wise to travel when I am sick. The Galat Family opened up their home and treated us like we were part of the family. I was able to rest and recover all weekend which is exactly what I needed before returning to home. We had a lot of company over, shared some good stories and laughed a little bit. I really didn’t leave the house except to go up to the hospital a couple of times and going to church.

Monday Night
I am feeling so much better now. I had a breakthrough this morning; I am still not sure if it was physical, spiritual or both. Our plan is to have a taxi pick us up at 10:00 am, drive us down to Bomet to meet Steve and Judi Cochran who are travelling back from Nairobi with four new tires for me. Then the taxi will take us to the Mara Safari Club where we will get the tires put on the rims and hopefully head home to Mbita, God willing.