Heading West

We travelled by overnight bus to Nairobi. Despite our fears of being robbed of our bags in the night, we arrived at 5:30 AM with all our gear and having slept quite a bit. This was to be first of many overnight bus trips in the coming months. Nairobi is no place to wander in the dark, so we joined the rest of the passengers in the office until the sun rose almost two hours later. Rather than risk our lives in Nairobbery, we promptly boarded the next shuttle heading to Nakuru. The shuttle broke down just outside of Naivasha – when Dad Bartlett called to warn us of the turmoil in Egypt, which we only had become aware of just as we boarded the bus. After squishing into another full shuttle we finally arrived in Nakuru and took our final shuttle to St Andrews School in Turi. My pack could not fit in the back and was strapped to the roof!! Several times on the journey I poked my head out the window to make sure it didn’t fall off as we hit pothole after pothole.

There is always room on the roof

We were on the way to stay with the Johnson family, teachers from St Andrews who had visited Mwamba early on during our time in charge. Before they left, Adrian and Carol offered us a place to stay as well as a behemoth vehicle and camping gear to borrow. We arrived on the weekend that parents and families of the boarding school were visiting and camping onsite. It was full and hectic, taking up most of the Johnson’s time. However, they made sure we were well fed (BBQ) and entertained (talent show) before an afternoon nap. In the evening we enjoyed a performance of the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe that left me intrigued about CS Lewis’s atonement theology (seems like Ransom Theory in LWW). After Chapel on Sunday, Carol and Adrian sorted us right and proper with all the camping gear we could ever possibly need (including a potatoe masher and chapatti frying pan), ready for tomorrow’s adventure.

Most of the Johnson family at St Andrew's School - little slice of England