Last I wrote, the Wrights and Erika were on their way up country
again, along with Bob's sister Kristy and her son Justin. I had been
alone on the compound for a couple weeks, so it was great to have the
place humming with activity again. And boy, were we busy. We were
packing for a safari.
     Just a few days after they arrived in Karamoja,
14 of us (plus all our tents and camping equipment) drove north to
spend a few days at Kidepo Valley National Park.
Now, when I say we drove north, this was not a comfy road trip (not for most of us, at least). A few people road in the Wright's SUV, but me, Erika, Rachel, Justin, Mary, Kipsy, Bobby, Anna and Jamie climbed onto the back of the pickup truck, on top of all our camping gear, and held on tight for the 8 hour drive north on the dusty, bumpy Karamoja roads.
     It was fun at first – we talked, had some sing-alongs, enjoyed the scenery. After a couple hours it was not very much fun anymore; it
was just plain painful. The only really unbearable part of the ride was a certain section we passed through when we were getting pretty close to Kidepo. The road was very bumpy and slow going, and as soon as we had to slow down to navigate the ditches, we were attacked by tse tse flies. We are very fortunate not to have a lot of tse tse flies in Nakaale. They are big, persistent, fast (like horse flies but WORSE)… they can bite through clothes, they're very hard to squish, and their blood burns your skin if you do manage to kill them. Cool.
     I was so glad to finally go north of Nakaale, though – it's hard to
imagine any place more barren and less developed than Nakaale, but the
northern districts of Karamoja are EMPTY and the mountains and hills
are stunningly beautiful. We drove through a few "cities" and got lots
of stares and shouts and waves. We wazungu were a sight to behold –
dirty, sunburned, exhausted.
     One thought that struck me again and again as we drove farther away
from civilization was this: so few people in the history of the world
will ever see these mountains, these amazing rock formations, these
savannahs and caves and hillsides (how blessed I am to be one of the
few!). But God made this place beautiful anyways… for the few who
would see. He displays His beauty, His strength, His creativity, so
that even in these remote places people will see the evidence that He
is there. He loved the Karamojong enough to place them in a
magnificent country where they can't escape the fact that He IS.
     About eight hours after we set out we arrived at the ranger station
parched, hungry, dusty (all the ladies had nice moustaches by this
point!), extremely sore, and extremely happy. Just driving into the park to get signed into our campsite, we saw a herd of elephants.