the road to Marsibit

We set out for Marsibit yesterday and stopped in a town called Isiolo for lunch. This was my first encounter in Kenya with real poverty while we had previously driven past kibera isiolo seemed different, it was the first time I had seen kids with dirty and torn clothes and no shoes.
In isiolo we went to a church compound where we had some lunch. I had some mundasis which are kinda like a savory dohnut. Inside the compound they had a stockpile of relief food for the northern villages. There was perhaps 3 or 4 trucks worth of maize. When I talked to the guys at the compound about it they told me it wasn't nearly enough.

After leaving isiolo we continued north toward Marsibit for the first 150kms the road is newly sealed and in much better condition than those in Nairobi but after this the road turned to a mix of dirt and gravel. It's very dusty and like driving over a sheet of corrugated iron. What struck me about the road is that this is the main road from Cairo to south Africa but its so incredibly rough. You may be able to drive it in a car but it would have been pretty unwise.

We traveled until it was dark when we were stopped by a road block in a town called Laisamis. The police had closed the road to vehicles traveling without an escort. We were told this was due to some unrest between tribes further up the road. This was pretty worrying for us kiwis as we aren't used to dealing with this kind of thing and through our eyes the town we were in seemed very foreign.

Fortunately our guide pastor john knew the pastor of the local congregation and was able to arrange for us to stay with him which was such a blessing. It was great to know God is looking out for us. Another amazing blessing was that there was cellphone reception which made me personally feel a lot more safe.

The pastors compound was about 5mins out of the Laisamis township and contained a concrete block house with two or three bedrooms and some cosy couches. We were cooked a meal by our cook who was traveling with us, and set up to sleep on the pastors porch.

We slept on roll up mats under mosquito nets. Most of the guys were tired and slept till morning but I heard hyena close by throughout the night so I didn't sleep soundly. The others didn't realise what the noise was until the morning.

It absolutely amazing me how hospitable the people are here.

Luke

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