What Next?

Like I said before there was so much to write about and I want to make sure I don't leave anything out because it was such a great experience...
So I guess I'll continue with the Lodwar experience...


We were there for 3 days with our friend Ben who runs Gilgol High School. He makes the trip every month , and for 1 week he travels to Lodwar and Kakuma to train other pastors and teachers. After going on this trip, I have a huge respect and appreciation for what he does, it’s a hard trip to make. I can’t even imagine doing that each
month.

While Ben taught we went across the street and played with some of the kids in the neighborhood...
Most of our time consisted of playing with the kids that hung around the church. They were a lot of fun, it just got to be so hot that it was tough not to be exhausted from the heat after a short time.


Just a handful of the kids we played with


Al spent a lot of time with this little girl, she had broken her arm the day before so she had to sit out most of the games.



PLEASE DONT ENLARGE THIS PHOTO, or enlarge at your own risk...This boy climbed up the tree and revealed that his pants were torn on the inside from the crotch to the ankle...and thought it was so funny to show us the proof


Pastor Bonifus' little girl, Joy


I loved this kid David, but he always ran away from me



Chris played Mr. Lion with the kids and they LOVED it!





This is Commando, yeah its a pretty awesome name




Chris got to preach a lot while we were in Lodwar and he did a great job. The congregation really loved his sermons.


Lodwar felt like an old Western town, like Tombstone would have been back in the day, except with lots of Africans …

I accidentally posted part of my blog about Kakuma below, so please make sure you check it out...it was one of my favorite parts of the trip, despite losing 5lbs of sweat each day...

Were home!

After the bumpiest and most cramped 11 hour bus ride, we arrived home in Kitale around 3:30 AM, after leaving Kakuma yesterday around 4 PM.
We have no shortage of pictures and stories. We all weren’t sure where to start, so I guess Ill start at the beginning with the 9 hour bus drive to Lodwar…


First we got dropped off at the bus station, or what we thought was the bus station, but ended up having to take bodas WITH ALL OUR LUGGAGE from where we were dropped off. Which sucked for me because of coarse I had the biggest bag…

View from the bus at the Kitale Bus station...I think I remember hearing, "Look at the whites, they're killing all our Muslims...F**k them, until Obama is in office, f*****g kill them all..." as we were stepping onto the bus...I don't know about you but that's how I like to start my day...


Once we were on the bus we realized how cozy we were going to be for the next 9 hours…I had the aisle seat,which after I settled in didn’t think would have been all that bad…a short time later I realized I was wrong…



A preacher came on the bus and decided that the perfect place to stand was in the doorway, next to me. Not that I didn't want to hear him, I just couldn’t escape his shouting in my ear, because he was trying to be heard over the bus or his lower region which, was at my eye level…so I just pretended to fall asleep…


Somewhere in Lodwar...


The beginning of the trip up wasn’t so bad, the scenery was beautiful, so it helped pass the time. But as soon as we got into the region they call Turkana we began picking up a ton of people. There weren’t seats for them, only the ailse to stand in.
Bus stop


It was crazy, we would stop in the middle of nowhere and pick up or drop off a handful of Turkanas, and you know who they are because they are dressed in their tribal gear, which usually consists of lessos (they look like colorful blankets), tons of colorful beads, a cane, and sometimes some pretty crazy designs that have been carved into their skin depending on which tribe theyre from… its hard to miss them.

Here's an example of Turkana's typical style of dress

More to come on them later...

A village that seemed to come from nowhere...


Through all the people getting on and off the bus I still managed to get punched in the head and eye a few times as well as lend my shoulder out to be an ass rest for many passengers…
We got to Lodwar sometime around 6PM and had to find a hotel…We found a good one too, it was called the Turkwell Lodge and at first it looked like the African version of the Bates Motel. I think we were a little unsure at first, but once we got settled in and realized Norman Bates wasn’t hiding in our bathroom, which had a toilet thank God, but no seat, we were a little more comfortable.

Oh the blissful Turkwell Lodge


For some reason I kept hearing "Margaritaville"every time we had breakfast


The back gate


Allison claimed you can wash your hair and go to the bathroom all at the same time our bathroom was so small...I said prove it.


While at breakfast one day Chris came up with a nifty invention to prevent the flies from landing on your food...
I don't want to describe it because someone might steal the idea it's so good


Lodwar definitely wasn’t what I thought it would be, and I don’t say that in a bad way, I guess I was just thinking it would be more like Kitale, city-wise. Not sure why, I just did.
It’s definitely a desert town and very spread out. The population goes up and down a ton because people are so transient. The geography of it honestly made me feel like I was in some random town on my way to Las Vegas or Arizona…We all agreed that we didn’t know why but for some reason it felt like home. Another thing we knew…was how f-ing hot it was…
When Allison's alarm would go off every morning it was never below 85 degrees...yikes