It’s a Small World

We all left the house by 7:30 and headed off to meet the other Uganda missionaries at Sipi Falls. We were all packed up and ready to head for Kenya straight from there. The guys had previously done a beautiful 2-3 hour hike to the bottom of the falls, but nobody could remember where the trailhead was. Eventually we picked up some opportunistic guide who said he knew for sure where it was. And he did know of a trailhead, it just happened to be a different one than they’d been on last time. We didn’t mind, this trail was apparently steeper and shorter, but it was truly gorgeous! A couple of guides supplied us with sticks and accompanied us down, helping the ones with recently sprained ankles over the squirrelly parts.

To get down the cliff near the top of the climb, we had to descend a 40 ish ft long rickety stick ladder. It was wobbly and hammered together in an extremely African fashion, but it served its purpose well. The trail was steep and slick at some places, and wound through banana groves, past coffee trees, green beans, ferns and a certain plant that I touched that gave me a bumpy rash on my arm for a few hours.

Near the bottom, we started to feel the mist from the falls. Pink begonias grew in masses, and the trail turned from slippery to mud. It was a dirty, wet and happy group that gazed at the splendor.

We struggled and puffed our way up the hill, where we met the rest of the missionaries. They all had to take a look at the strange family of Forrest. Hopefully it explains a few things.

We went to a resort/restaurant for lunch. It was right on the top of the cliff and you could see the top of the falls from the veranda. The food came out at a wide range of times, so some ate and others waited and we all talked.

And then it was Goodbye to Trevor’s and their excellent hospitality, and the six of us headed off for Malaba and the Kenya border.

The crossing itself was very typical of Africa. Endless lines of trucks, dozens of “helpful” people and stop after stop after stop. You have to get exit papers for the car, have a yellow fever and Covid check, get stamped out of Uganda, present your documents to Kenya for entry, change some money, import the car, buy insurance for it, buy some small snacks and eat a maize cob, follow a random man to the last check point where they look at your car papers one last time and then Voilà! You are spit out into Kenya, and in this case, a torrential downpour. The process took about 2 hours. We had hoped to get to Mbita for night, but it all got too late. Our friend Michael from there had invited us for night and we were enthused about spending night with him and his wives, Nancy and Cynthia. We got to know them through some CSI projects we did when we lived in Kenya. They’re a couple (???group???) a little younger than us and really much fun. Instead, we stopped at The Floma Guest House in Saiya, where we enjoyed a delightful supper, hot showers and cheap rooms. The showers were a bit dumb cause the bathroom was just a rectangle with the toilet on one end, shower in the middle and sink on the other end. No curtain, no nothing. I was grieved when I by accident soaked the toilet paper roll. Soggy mush.

Tomorrow is an early start as we want to catch a ferry, so it’s lights out for this human.