Giving thanks to God on life’s highway
Jez Smith recounts a journey in Kenya that didn’t go according to plan
We set out to Kaptama, via Eldoret. Our car wasn’t working so we took a matatu (a shared taxi) to Eldoret, then picked up a car from a friend. This car was a minibus, like a matatu, or had been once. Now it had just four seats – three in the front and one by the back of the sliding side door. The roads to Kaptama from Eldoret were bumpy, to say the least. But we got to see more of rural Kenya, from men sitting in the shade under trees at crossroads, to children washing clothes and splashing about in the river. At some point during our journey, a speed limiter in the vehicle got displaced and every so often when Bainito accelerated the limiter (with its rather irritating beep) would kick in, briefly cutting out the engine and stop us from exceeding 80km/h. Except that we were being prevented from going over much lower speeds.
Although it was still light when we left Kaptama we had a long journey ahead of us and so we took off down the hill, whizzing down to the main road and back towards home. Little did we know it then, but this was to be one of the epic journeys of my life. It started well, with beautiful vistas, and later we saw another Friend, Daniel, walking the couple of hours that it would take him to get home from market. We gave him a lift and we chatted, with Bainito, Phori and I in the front seats and Daniel in the solitary seat in the rear.
It was already getting dark when we reached the Uganda road. This highway goes from Mombasa on the coast to Nairobi, then up to Eldoret and west into Uganda. Thundering along it are all sorts of vehicles, particularly buses and trucks going in each direction from as far west as DRC. The road is messed up too, in places the tarmac has become rutted from the heavy trucks passing up and down it. There are also potholes, some so large that vehicles hit the verge or the other side of the road to avoid them. I was thinking that this could be some kind of metaphor for my Quaker journey when suddenly we hit something and the speed limiter cut in again. And then the speed limiter wasn’t going off at random any more. It was all the time. So we were stuck travelling up the Uganda road at six or seven miles an hour in the dark with trucks and buses thundering by whose drivers might not have stopped for who knows how long.
Bainito put the hazard lights on and we continued on our way. I have never known a more excruciating journey in all my life. I started texting some friends to ask them to hold us in the Light, but then decided not to worry anyone. Adding to our concern was that the sliding door no longer seemed to shut and there was a growing gap between the door and the vehicle. Our bags were lying loose on the floor of the bus, bouncing around as we travelled over bumps.
I’m not sure who started the singing and the praising God but soon our vehicle was filled with joyous song. We gave thanks to the Lord that we at least had a car, that meant that we could go faster than people walking. Whenever we passed a broken down car we gave thanks that we were still going. We sang variations of a song I had learned at YQCA:
‘I am praising the Living God
I am praising the Living God
I am praising the Living God
Hallelujah Living God’.
We gave thanks for all sorts of situations, mostly along the lines of ‘I am driving for the Living God’. Song, I realised, had become a key part of my worshipping God.
Eventually the speed limiter got tired or God had had enough and we were able to pick up speed again. When we arrived home that night, several hours after we had intended, we were all mightily relieved. Before we ate, we gave thanks once more to God for our safe arrival and for the opportunity to praise him along the way.
In my second week in Kenya I was offered a hot bath by my Quaker host family. I accepted eagerly without thinking that they didn’t have running water let alone hot water. When it had been prepared I was led to the bathroom and presented with this tub on a stool. Within moments the penny dropped and I gave thanks for the kindness of my hosts. Unfortunately, due to my height I couldn’t stand up straight in this cubicle so I washed outside. After all, who would see? As I cheerily washed the first plane that I had seen in two weeks flew low overhead! I waved.
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