9:00am - Picked up by taxi driver.
9:30am - Get "top up" minutes for phones.
10:00am - Go to the customs clearing office in Loki. Do some passenger and cargo paperwork.
10:15am - Go to another customs immigration place. Taxi driver stuff. Nice not to have to drive back to Kapoeta, but also means we're at the mercy of the taxi driver. If they see their buddy, they will stop to say hello. Oh, and then our taxi driver has his friend drive us instead, because he was feeling sick. Poor guy!
10:30am - Stop and wait for fifteen minutes at the gate to leave Loki. The taxi in front of us is having problems.
10:45am - Start timing our travel time as we've finally left Loki and are finally headed home!
12:00pm - The roads are really bad from all of the rain. Several times we had to stop to make sure all the taxis in our taxi train made it over a bump or through a puddle.
12:10pm - See the border office to exit Kenya, but can't get close yet. Two giant trucks and one taxi are stuck in the road in front of us. Taxi driver gets out to investigate the safest path to the border.
12:40pm - Finds a safe place and we...make it! Then we wait for others to make it. Taxi driver gets out to help others.
1:00pm - Make it to the border office. Easily stamped through. Use the not-so-fine facilities. So many flies!
1:20pm - Make it to the Sudan border crossing. Stamped out so quickly! Fastest ever!!! Then, we naturally had to wait again.
1:45pm - Wait while the one soldier goes through every taxi (ours was last) and checks baggage and cargo. I carry over the bags, and the soldier checks and says go!
2:00pm - Leave Nadapal (the border crossing).
2:40pm - Stop in another town for another border check for the taxi. Clear to go!
3:45pm - Flat tire. Thankfully, there was a taxi driver behind us! The community part of the African culture that is so lovely. The old tire was removed and stowed away, and the new tire was retrieved and attached all within 8 minutes.
5:00pm - Get to Kapoeta. Taxi drops us at the tented camp where our car was parked. We hop in and drive home!!!
5:30pm - HOME.
It was a lllllllooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggggg day.
But the most beautiful part of it was the drive back to the compound. The whole way we kept saying things that we were thankful for from our trip over. And we could have kept going. And going.
God, I am so thankful for You. And Your faithfulness, no matter the circumstances in my life. And Your presence, no matter where I am. And Your love, which You continuously lavish upon me no matter what I do or say. Thank You for being my Savior.
Saturday was full of cleaning and more cleaning, but we ended the day with yet another Thanksgiving Meal, Part 4 that is. Boxed stuffing from the states, chicken marinated in some fancy herb packet from the states, green beans (because upon cleaning we found maybe 10 cans!), and gravy from my white elephant Christmas gift.
YUM.
And thanks to all of you who contributed to this final Thanksgiving meal!
No comments:
Post a Comment