Loki Trip
Be sure to check out a few of the pictures I took: http://calebklay.wordpress.com/pictures/
Wednesday morning started with me running over to the hangar around 6:00am to get some last minute stuff done before I left town for the rest of the week. Got back to my place around 8:00 and finished packing and went over to help Jon finish packing and loading. We picked up a local pastor and were on our way by 10:00. The first few hours were pretty uneventful. Jon grew up here in Kenya since his parents and grandparents were all missionaries here. So he filled me in on some of the areas we were traveling through. As we neared Eldoret, the place we would spend the night, we ascended over 8,000 ft on a relatively flat plateau. This area is very fertile and stays cool year round because of the altitude. I wanted to take some picture but it was cloudy and foggy.
All of a sudden on both sides of the road, there looked like snow. We stopped to check it out and found that it was actually lots of small hail but from a distance it would pass for snow. It was about 50 degrees F and this was 15:30! Eldoret was about the same altitude and quite cool. We arrived a little after 16:00, and went to the market to buy a bunch of fruits and vegetables to take since a lot is grown in the area the prices are good and much better than Loki where not much grows besides anthills, thorn bushes and acacia trees. After buying half the market, (Ok, not literally, but at least a couple hundred pounds of food) we headed to the AIM African missionary college to spend the night with some AIM missionaries there.
We had supper and then joined them for a prayer meeting with another missionary couple working at the school and 2 of the Kenyan teachers and administrators. We left at 7:00 and before we were out of the compound, we found a matatu (taxi van) stuck in the driveway since it had rained a bunch and was really slick mud. We helped him get unstuck and then continued on with our trip. Once we got on the main road it was not too bad for the first hour or so but then the road deteriorated some so we were probably averaging around 20mph. This continued for a couple hours and then it improved some. There was a road grader and a couple dump trucks that were binging dirt to fill in the potholes. The asphalt was pretty much nonexistent which actually is better since the grader can level and smooth the road much easier. We also started descending down to the low flat dessert.
Around 16:00 we made it to Lodwar, and stopped to visit a missionary family for a few minutes. Then we were back on the road, and this stretch was the best part. So the 214 km from Lodwar to Loki was the nicest part of the road and had the least traffic and we made good time getting to Loki around 18:20.
Friday morning, I started out by taking a walk around the compound to check it out since it was getting dark when we arrived and didn’t have time. After my walk, I checked out the pilot house, where I was staying, more closely to see what kind of repairs and work had been done and what was still needed. I had breakfast with the Hildebrants and then we went into town to do a little shopping and show me around town. We then went to the airport and met the 2 Samaritan’s Purse Kenyan workers. They showed us the new site the airport authority said we could have to build our hangar. It seems to be a pretty good location and hopefully all will go well with the process and we can soon start work on it.
Came back for lunch and then did some yard clean up. Also got the swimming pool out and started setting it up. But because it was kind of cloudy, the pump was not pumping water (the compound doesn’t have electricity and relies on solar power or a generator) so we could not start filling it up.
Saturday, visited a little with a construction team that had just come out of Sudan. The sun was shining so started pumping water into the pool. Also helped setup Hildebrant’s new washing machine. After lunch, I went to the airport and waited to help load the DC3 that I was flying back to Nairobi on. I was flying as crew so got to sit in the jump seat which was the only free seat since they had picked up extra people in Juba.
Shortly after takeoff, we called one of the mission stations on the radio and my roommate from high school answered the radio. So I was able to talk to him for a while till we were out of range. The pilot also let me fly for an hour or so. That was a lot of fun. I hope that I will be able to catch other flights in the future to other areas that we serve. Thanks for your prayers, everything went very smooth and it was a great trip.
