Well, the last few days in Mbale it was raining quite a bit, and we had received word from friends here in Karamoja that it had also been raining "too too much" in Nakapiripirit. Nevertheless, we prayed and set out for the journey around 11:30AM. Erika and I rode with Pastor Al and Laurie again.
The first bit of the journey is a real, paved road (lovingly referred to as "The Tarmac") -- but once we got onto the dirt [mud] road we knew pretty quickly that this would not be an easy journey. We hit three particularly rough spots. In the first significant stretch of slippery, muddy ruts we came to, there were other cars and trucks coming the other direction already stuck. We headed in for the ride (it felt a bit like being on a shying horse... if anyone out there knows what I mean... one minute you're going left, the next minute you're spinning right, you're turned sideways, tilting side to side, and holding on tight). There was one particular point when I really felt scared because the car was tilting and sliding and I was so worried we were going to tip over (and I would have been on the bottom side, getting squished into the mud! But God protected us and Pastor Al kept the car upright :) However, we did get legitimately stuck, and it took several backward pulls by Bob's massive Dyna truck to get us out of the rut.
Later on we came to a similar rough spot. Bob, Heather, Ryan (a visiting pastor from Kitgum) and Pastor Al actually walked out the course through the mud and planned the best way to navigate the huge ditches and ridges. We made it through without getting stuck. The funniest moment of the day -- we've got our windows down and Pastor Al is vigorously steering through this labyrinth of puddles and potholes, we're all quite tense and holding on tight and as we're coming over a tough patch someone standing on the grass on the driver's side says "How are you?" Pastor Al, spinning the wheel like a boss, replies "I am fine!" We just broke down laughing hysterically. How does it LOOK like we're doing?!?!?! We're basically going sideways through a muddy trench the size of my house! But Al's right, "It is important to greet!"
The last spot of the really daunting spots actually ended up not being too bad. There's a broken bridge at one point. Several men were standing around trying to guide cars through the water and up onto the other bank. We watched Pastor Dave in the car in front of us go in... it's up to his wheels... his exhaust pipe is underwater for a few seconds... he almost looks stuck... but then he's up and out. So Pastor Al just went for it and it actually didn't feel as bad going over it.
We made it home to Karamoja again. It's raining cats and dogs here. It had been dry the past couple weeks so I really thought the dry season was here. Think again. The climate change here is remarkable... the seasons have completed shifted. Unfortunately that makes it quite hard for the Karamojong, who can't easily foresee what to plant when... some have planted again in these extended rains hoping to get more of a crop. We'll see how this rain effects things here next year. As long as we don't have to drive in it, it's a good thing... but the Mission has to take several more trips south in the next month, so these roads can add a lot of stress and uncertainty to our plans. Please pray that they will dry up soon!
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