Now I know that according to the corresponding movies, this post would be out of order, but first of all the title of my fourth post on this subject really must come last (if you know what I mean), and second of all, this movie was just laughable enough to corrupt the franchise, so I should be able to put it in any order I choose.
We left church in Mathare to head downtown for our transportation to Western Kenya. Ryan had mentioned earlier that he was planning to put us on the mid-level bus line, which would be even crazier than the nice Easy Coach busses I've grown accustomed to. Still, I was up for the adventure. What I didn't know is that because we were leaving after church, we had missed the last bus, and therefore needed to charter a shuttle. Essentially, we wound up taking a matatu - a micro-bus taxi - all the way to Webuye, 7 hours West. Fortunately, the long-distance shuttles are nicer than the typical matatus. There are only 11 passenger seats, as opposed to 14, so everyone had more space, and the seats are pretty comfortable. I wound up in the front, with our driver, Isaac. The front provided me with the fullest field of photographic freedom I've felt in my five flights West, but I failed to film as frequently, feeling fit with the photos I'd found on the first four. The drive wasn't anywhere near as bumpy as it had been. Apparently being on a bus amplifies every little undulation of road.
The only significant bump we had occurred when we hit a sheep. Well, to say 'we hit it' doesn't quite do the incident justice. We plowed right through the thing. I mean we clobbered it right in the head. In his defense, Isaac did brake pretty hard, but we couldn't dodge left or right, due to oncoming traffic and a steep shoulder, respectively. There just wasn't time to avoid it. I've never tried to describe the facial expression or internal monologue of a sheep before, so bear with me if this first attempt doesn't quite give you a full picture. It was completely oblivious. I swear it had a pleasant smile on its face as it began to cross the road. A look of ignorant serenity. It may have been thinking "Wow, the grass on the other side really is greener. And I'm going to eat it. Yum." Perhaps its thoughts were akin to those of the sperm whale plummeting to the ground in A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In all likelihood, it probably wasn't thinking anything, because as opposed to other four-legged creatures, sheep just don't think. And I've had confirmed for me what I've always read about sheep: sheep are just really really so dumb. Really really really so dumb. For real. After being in Kenya for a while, I'm coming to a better understanding of why God likens us to sheep.
Almost as soon as we had sheared our sheep, it began to rain. Ah yes. How could I have forgotten my old friend from Western Kenya? It rained off and on lightly for about two hours, the clouds seeming always to hover over us as if our shuttle were some cartoon character having a bad day. Then, all at once, enormous drops began to pelt the van. I would not have been surprised if the rain had dented the shuttle more severely than the sheep. Fortunately, our matatu held up, and in the pitch black of night, just after the rain had mercifully stopped, we arrived in Webuye. It was too late for dinner, so we all gathered together and ate Emily's supply of snacks for the week. Some very dry muffins and bread from the Tumaini Bakery, the greasiest cheese I've ever seen, chocolate-covered raisins, a few cereal bars, the last remnants of my coke, and two bags of peanuts (oh goody) have not been enough to satiate me. Hence, I'm off to bed with skull-splitting hunger.
No comments:
Post a Comment