Search for A Kingdom

       After trying to sleep some in our tent, which could be described as a human-sized sardine can, we woke up and hiked toward some mountains in the distance.  We eventually ran into a large river, which we later identified as the Nile, and could go no further.  We began our hike back to the road and after about half an hour some dark clouds rolled to a halt above us before opening up into a powerful thunderstorm.  In the midst of this downpour we came across an old farmer who directed us to a path that would lead to the road.  After giving him a couple of our machetes as a thank you, we headed to the road.  After waiting a little bit we landed a sweet ride that was headed all the way back to Kampala.  Better yet, they were late so they would be driving pretty fast.  We hopped in the back of the truck were greeted by three more smiling Africans who were also riding in the back.  They were quite suprised that we would be their new traveling companions. The ride home is something that words cannot fully describe and photographs cannot entirely illustrate.  However we will give our best attempt at trying to convey what  we feel were glimpses of the kingdom of heaven. 

       The truck took off and began driving down the bumpy dirt road.  For about 30 minutes we sat on the floor of the flatbed, getting pounded by every bump in the road.  A few times we hit a pot-hole or jut in the road going 40 or 50 mph resulting in a foot or two of air before landing back on our rear-ends on the truck.  Felt like what I imagined being body slammed by a full-grown man would feel like.  After a couple of those brutal instances we transitioned to sitting on our packs.  This too was pretty brutal so Andrew decided to stand up and hold onto the side.  We saw that while unorthodox, this may in fact be the best and most comfortable way to ride back.  So we stood for the next few hours.  At this point the blank canvas that was the sky before the storm was stained with a plethora of colors originating from the sun setting behind the mountains in the distance.  This scene screamed Romans 1 where it says “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (v.20)  This was something  in this world but too vivid and majestic to be of this world.  A glimpse of something greater. 

       As we traveled on we watched as African children would run out of their huts to the side of the road and frantically wave at us.  Men and women walking down the road and see us standing on the back of this speeding truck and initially be quite puzzled.  As we drive by we would flash a quick smile or wave and their face would completely light up, leaving us smiling more than before.  It was crazy to think of how different these rural village people were, half a world away, different language, but a smile is universal.  A realization of how complex yet simple humanity is.  Another one of those glimpses.    

       We live in a broken and imperfect world where we dont have all the answers.  We werent designed to be able to know everything.  Thats what these little pieces or realizations, however complete or incomplete, of something greater than ourselves are so important.

       Because while these may be only glimpses, sometimes a glimpse is all thats needed to remind you who deserves all the glory. 

Africa Team

-L4L

2+2 in a 1x1 tent still =4

Darkness. I edited Wikipedia when i got back and it says No Light.  All i could think about was Dear Mrs. Skippy, a private art teacher i had once when i was about 15 or so. She had argued with me for hours about how there was no black, just a combination of all the colors on the color wheel, man am i going to have a field day with her theory when i get back. The old truck we got out of continues down the road as we pull out some headlights and look around. The land is banked up on both sides of the road in a semi-deserted road, total population of the area: 4, three white guys, one asian. Ten or so minutes pass by and we are found by an old who-knows-what-year yota with an even older tree trunk in the bed, but to us this truck was our ticket out. We hop in the bed and start making up ground. We come up behind the other truck that we had gotten off of but stop in the town right before we overcome it. Who knew this ticket wasn’t quite as long lasting as our salvation, the truck driver says “we're here.” A cool 7 km  - thats about all that ride was good for. A shake of a hand, 3 waves and the guys are all gone looking for bottles of coke and some chapatis or at least ben is, he has acquired a slight addiction which in my book is perfect. Chapatis are cheap, filling, and everywhere somewhere along the lines of taco bells in the US. I talk to a guy with a Ford Ranger that in africa’s kelly blue book is probably on the top of the resell list, and he’s totally down with taking us 120km to wherever that is. I round up the guys we get in the truck, drive 100 yards and stop. We forgot the bota driver, bota, and bags of sugar cane that we had found were now going to share the ride, still the ride was a gold mine. Its clean sailing, roads are nice and a few sips of a coke a bathroom stop at a creepy gas station and we're there. The police man who was stopping the truck for a checkpoint was determined to have us get on a bus that was supposed to come in just a few turns of the clock. But thats not going to fly in our book especially considering this guy was probably a dual major in bus booking and police duty so we start walking. We pass a sign that says something about wild game and beginning wilderness yada yada. We're not really interested, but stranded. It was dark there were no cars anywhere. We see one truck but it drives past us faster than Ricky Bobby. An old truck slows down and stops, cool. We had been walking for 30 or so minutes and seen 2 cars it was time to take what we can get. Besides i’ve never heard of a bunch of guys getting mauled by wild animals in a truck. 

This driver doesn’t talk just drives, makes it easy to explain that we arn’t paying him. Im in the front seat with Ben when i smell gas, and a lot of it. The water jug that was under his feet isn’t water. Thats 2 for 2 Ben. No more front seats for you. But we get out at Gulu before the driver figured out what had happened. It wasn’t leaking anymore after we turned it back right side up, not much we could do, i guess thats an African oops. Not totally proud of how that went down. But he did drop us off in the Gulu ghetto. Shady town, not tropical tan shade, Snoop Dog rap video shady. Jon leans down to tie his shoe and I inform him he can’t tie what he doesn’t have and we should keep moving at least over to the bank where there a security guard nearby. So maybe we arn’t as dumb as we look hu moms? Yeah... don’t worry we make up for that cautious moment later. We ask if we can pitch a tent outside the bank in the beautiful lawn half joking the other half hoping. I mean it is 2 am and we are all tired. But we are in Gulu, score. He says sorry but the management isn’t available at that hour to ask for permission, we're cool with that, besides it was just a joke right? He points us in the toward where all the hotels are and we leave walking. Four guys, one dark road, but we feel safe because there's no one around and we're guys who are built with a high tolerance from insecurity. We bang on a hotel until someone wakes up long enough to tell us they are full but at least she was kind enough to put her boots on and pick up her rifle and escort us to the next hotel down the road. We all pile into a room after fighting with the guards about the price. We get him down to 20,000 shillings for the room about $2.48 each, cool. So it wasn’t a holiday inn but it did have a bed a fan and toilet. Jeremiah picks the floor because supposedly he has thing against sleeping close to other guys. We shut off the lights. 

Its a big game of the human, only we are holding each others feet instead of hands. Its the only way that we could even come close to getting 4 guys in a 3 man tent. Jer’s theory against sleeping close to other guys, out the window. But surprisingly he is one of the only guys sleeping.  Don’t worry he’s sleeping all right, get the mic, he has to hear this. Best audio footage of Africa yet is a 20 something year old asian snoring to death in a matchbox size tent. Clarification on the matchbox, more like the size of the tear-off matches. Jon and I are the only ones who are even semi-awake Ben’s out too but he’s boring. He just sleeps, no symphony or anything. We do a little in- the- tent- update and lay down again to try attempt number 47 at sleeping. 

The next morning we get up, find some machetes, $2.50 each dull, $3.50 each sharpened, bingo. Ben and i pick up some Doxy, for some anti-malria action, not much for the Meds but we were kinda playing all of our risky cards all at once on this trip so we kinda had to even something out.  The side effects are however real. Its harder to find the main road out of town with a headache especially when “main” road doesn’t mean biggest. We jump in the back of a white flatbed with railing and a lawn chair against the bed which Jer claims right off. Im cool with that though im down for standing. First dirt roundabout i had ever seen, seemed more out of place than us in that area. And we get dropped off in the town that borders the long road to Bibia our last stop before we take off into the bush.                                                             --Andrew

Sudan Part 2

We lost Ben. Jon’s buying food but ben never made it to the grocery store. I get him on the phone to find out that he has been dropped off, not far off, but in the wrong part of town. So he gets things straitened out and is on his way... meanwhile we try to get the rest of what we need to get on our way. Foods bought: noodles, sardines, snickers, breakfast bars, and water. We are all there packing our bags on some benches in the middle of the mall. Stuff is just getting thrown in so that we can hit the road, considering we are in a race with the sun and currently we are losing. The bota drivers take us up to the top of town from there we can start hitch hiking. Thumbs go up and let the games begin. We start walking into the sunset as the sun makes its last appearance and ducks behind the distant hills. I have found that in africa the sun stays in the sky as long as it can then it drops faster than a beat from a hillbilly band. We throw down a prayer to God that goes something like. “keep us alive, amen.” and keep moving just walking in two packs of two. This was in hopes that the driver would see the first and stop for the second. We land our first ride with a nice woman who takes us just a few kilometers but that's enough to get us out of town which is always better for getting rides. She was a nice middle aged woman listening to her sermon and telling us white boys to be careful. Who knew Africa gets more dangerous at night. We did. She dumps us off and we start hitching again. Its fully dark by now all you can see is headlights and shadows of people around you. That and 4 white figures with packs waving at every car that isn’t a matato (public transport). We land a flatbed truck with four other mudugavus (black natives) in the back who look at us as if we are all crazy as the thought of electricity on Noah’s ark. They smiled and so did we, few miles down the road we stop at a gas station for some petrol. Waiting in the back, Jon jumps down and asks a big rig which way they are heading. He saying he is going all the way to Gulu which was our goal for that night. We are all pumped! all we gatta do is ride it out. I look down at my hands and find that the pole in the back of the last truck apparently needed to be greased to death and now so was I. But we all pack into the cab of the truck. There are two in the back of the cab, Jon and Jer, Ben and i are up front. The driver hadn’t said a word but the other guy was more than thrilled to be talking to us and was just going on and on about who knows what. The truck is moving at 30 km per hour. downhill. We find out that they are going to reach Gulu by the next morning. So we start discussing the thought of getting another ride. Finally Timothy, the passenger, pipes up and says there is a police stop ahead and we needed to hide, all in behind the curtains. So we quickly all pack in 4 guys and 4 packs - no room. The truck stops and we can hear the police asking if there is anyone in the back. The men lie and say no. I glance over at Jer who is stretching the curtain so that it covers at least half of him from being in sight. But we made it past with no trouble. A few minutes later we spread back out. Getting smuggled past a police stop, check. The driver asks Timothy something, but he is distracted looking for a black bag. Ben is sitting next to him. We look everywhere, jon in the back finds a few black ones next to him but they arn’t the right one. Ben pipes up “is it this one?” and pulls one out from under his feet. “Yes that is thank you.” “Whats in it?” We open the bag an inside is the trucker's loaf of bread or midnight meal with a size 12 shoe imprint diagonally,  making sure that it smashed the maximum number of slices. Ben goes. “oops, sorry thought it was a pillow.” but there are no hard feelings just laughs, so far. Finally the driver is heard. And the long waited question comes. “Do you guys have any money?” “Nope” the driver was getting heated. He obviously wasn’t as friendly and was wanting a little compensation.  We ask to be dropped off because we are feeling some tension and besides we want to find a ride that might be a little faster than 5 km/hour uphill and 10 down. Timothy argues with the other man for a second and we then ask if the driver understands english. “Yes, he knows everything you are saying”-Timothy. Nice we were being ignored by a 30 year old african. So that's it. We demand to be dropped off, even against Timothy’s will, he didn’t want us to get hurt and said he would feel responsible. The truck drives off and its dark everywhere.

The only light is from the occasional person waking up checking their surroundings and finding that they arn’t in the texan desert or hell, just africa. We put the tent up and bed down. I whisper to Jon “should we take the rain tarp off?” We had originally left it on to protect against the thought of waking up with a cheetah or panther staring strait down at his dinner - us. But at this point it was becoming unbearable. “Im fine with it.”-Jon "Lets just take up the ends." So i get out and fold up some of the sides. We had been in the tent for about 2 hours and time was slugging along slower than the truck we had been in the day before.  The joke passed around the tent that if we left the tarp on then we would all be perfectly crock potted by morning for whatever prey did stumble across us. A slight breeze blows through the tent and we all sigh and pause for a moment, but it is still standing at 90.2 degrees.                                     --Andrew

Sudan Part 1

I wake up to sweat in my eyes and find myself lying in a pool of my own perspiration. Foggy eyes and blurred vision i glance down at my watch, wipe my eyes and read it twice. 10:21. I had been asleep for 3 minutes before i had been woken up by the intense heat surrounding me. Thoughts flood my mind as i figure out where i am. 

The last things come first to my mind. Less than 36 hours before we had left Namuwongo, the outskirts of Kampala Uganda. Our mission was to set out on a journey, hitch hike our way up the center of Uganda and smuggle our way into Sudan. The motive seamed apparent - adventure, danger, thrill. But there was a scent of something more, something hidden in the back of my mind or Gods Will. Both were extremely cloudy at the moment. The last time i remember a good sleep i was taking a nap on the bed in the guest house of Betty and Moses the two Ugandans that were letting us stay with them along with Jonathan and Jeremiah, two other guys we had caught up with and were working with for the first few weeks. I had fallen asleep after church and lunch and was just letting myself enjoy a bit of sunday relaxation. When i woke up no one was around - not Ben or Jon or anyone. The house girl Lucy had no idea either. So i called Jon. He told me they were at the internet cafe and i should come down there. I put on some shoes and head on my way. Still half asleep i got there and began to dig through some emails. I turn around to the word Sudan mixed in with some talk of alternate plans. “Hey whats the plan,” i asked. “well considering the plans of our safari tomorrow got canceled we were thinking on going on a short trip ourselves”-Jon. I could smell an adventure stirring and i was all in. “Sure man fill me in.” I got the plan that they had cooked up. It was either head southwest to a lake to chill on the shore or sneak into Sudan by bush whacking through a national park known for its game parks. Obviously smuggling and animals over lakeside any day. The plan was coming together quickly and the decision to leave asap was made unanimously. So we head back to the place to  pack. I send one last email to Alison telling our brief plan in case we don’t surface for more than a week or so and we're off. 

The clock is ticking now. Im back. It 10:25 now. Not much for sleeping. i can feel the gritty tent below my feet and sunburned back. I breathe hard but the air is so thick with humidity i find myself uncomfortable rather than refreshed by the oxygen. I look down at my watch. It reads. Altitude 2756 feet, 95.1 degrees. It's all of a sudden apparent why sleep was coming so slowly and why i was basking in my own sweat. The thoughts blurr...

My bags are packed and so are Ben’s. We convene for one last plan making we were ganna split up to get more stuff done. Ben - Go Meet Jer at Garden City where he had already left to get a haircut. Jon was going to get a beard trim while i cleared the info off of my memory card of my camera. One last video. “John, tell us was is going on,” Me. “Hey guys,  we're about to go off and hitch hike our way into Northern Uganda. We hope to see you guys in a few days if not so long.”-Jon. Not much of a goodbye but we're guys and thats usually how things roll. Hi, bye, see ya around. Too much adrenaline and masculinity to address our mothers or house pets. It was gametime. John was off getting a last beard trim, i was throwing the computer stuff together and getting ready to meet him. Our bags only had what we needed. The thin list before was now almost transparent - down to a simple sleeping bag, long sleeve, knife and camera. We put ben on a bota (african motorbike) and send him off to find Jer at Garden city(shopping center). Jon and i are off to Aweno to get some shoes for him. His were all stolen and he was down to a pair of bright colored flip flops. We're in rushing running through the crowd, going through piled of shoes bartering on the move. Locals bring us shoes from all sides, some as pointless as high heels in a soccer game, others - close, but too small. Finally we land a pair, find some soles, which who knew weren’t always included, bartered and took off. Back to the bota heading to meet the others at Garden City the time. 6:05 sun was just 1 hour and 25 minutes from setting. and i fade off to sleep again.       --Andrew