A Real Kenyan Road Trip

I spent the weekend in Nairobi to stock up on supplies and groceries. It was a great weekend, but it wouldn’t be complete without some kind of trouble. We (Faith, Annette and myself) left Nairobi about 2:00 in the afternoon, and it takes 4ish hours to get to Tenwek. The sun goes down around 6:30, which means we had enough time to get home before dark. The car broke down in three different places, and each place gave me a new and unique perspective of Kenya.

Stop #1 (30 minutes at least)

We had been driving for maybe an hour when the car over-heated! Thankfully we were in a town and were able to push the car off the road without difficulty. A very kind police man directed us to a safe place and helped us push. As we were waiting for the car to cool down, cars and matatus were stopping to give us bottles of water for the car. That was not the only help we received. Within a few minutes, we had quite a crowd around us. Thankfully they spoke some English and Annette spoke enough Swahili, that we were able to communicate the problem and they were able to communicate a solution…eventually. The Kenyan men spent more time arguing about how to fix the car than actually fixing it. The police man stayed with us the entire time, and I’m thankful he did. Once they had successfully pour more than two liters of water into the car, onto the car and on the ground, they said we were good to go.  These are pictures from the first stop.

 

 

Stop # 2 (another 30 minutes)

We were not good to go! 15 minutes later the radiator pipe broke and sprayed dirty water on the windshield. When this happened we were at the top of a hill at what they call a junction. Kenyans will set up shops and stands at these junctions, and sell goods to vehicles when they stop at speed bumps. At this junction, there happened to be several “mechanics” . Here is a picture of our mechanics shop

 Even though this place didn’t seem legit, he actually seemed to know what he was doing. He flushed the radiator, reattached the pipe, and put coolant fluid into the car. While he was working on the car, I made some friends 🙂 Meet Mercy, Elizabeth and Wilma. I taught them to play tick-tack-toe in the dirt.

When the second mechanic finished, he said we should be able make it home. At this point, it was 4:00 and we weren’t even half way there. We were barely going to make it home before dark.

Stop #3 ( over an hour)

This stop was definitely my favorite! We hadn’t driven more than a mile when the pipe broke again! We broke down in a town, and once again drew a crowd. At one point I think we had 15 men around the car. Thankfully one of them knew the mechanic who had just worked on it. He called him and had him come help us fix it right. While the car was being worked on, I was once again making friends. A large group of children came to investigate. They spoke English and had many questions. I asked them to teach me to dance like a Maasai. They asked me to teach them to dance like Americans. I didn’t want to say Americans can’t dance, so I taught them to swing dance! I had so much fun with these children, and when it was time to leave they gave me a traditional Maasai hug.

   After this stop, the car worked fine, but the sun was going down. Since travelling after dark is dangerous (drunks, donkeys and tractors), We stayed in Narok for the night. After a night swim in the empty pool, Annette, Faith and I went to sleep. I am home safe, and I am very thankful for Gods protection through all of the difficulties.