The whole family came into the hangar last night to watch the final.  We were all dressed for the occasion.  I choose the blue away Spanish jersey, Cammy was in the Furia Roja and Andrej in my 2002 Spanish jersey.  Petr was happy to wear the Real Madrid jersey he got for his birthday in April.  There was a bit of a crowd there for the match and late in the second half they started a pool as to how many times I would stand up and yell.

It was a very entertaining and hard fought match.  Both teams had chances to take it, but in the end it was Spain lifting the cup for the first time.  Petr and Andrej had both fallen asleep, but awoke for the trophy ceremony.  It might have had something to do with some guy yelling…  Good memories.

(With sincere apologies to my Dutch friends.  “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”  But at least it was not a loss on penalties.)

While it is in a sense the day the USA was born, nothing really happened on that day of physical significance.  It was a culmination of an idea that was set forth.  It then had to be fought over to gain any merit, and then be put into practice to test it out.

The idea that was put forth was that the government was for the people and not the people for the government.  It seems quite simple, and fundamental.  Yet I think there are too many people who need to be reminded of it, many of whose authority I live under, both here in Africa, and as a US citizen.

On a lighter note, we had a good time getting together with a bunch of Americans for a great BBQ and  potluck.  We even had 3 Germans, 2 Australians and a Chinese.

God Bless America.

My motorcycle got a nice ride back to Nairobi on the DC-3.  I rode with Randy who had followed us down in a car. I think I need to explain a little bit about the Mombasa Highway.  It is a very narrow 2 lane road that runs from Mombasa to Nairobi.  Mombasa is not a huge city that generates a lot of traffic on its own. However, it is a port.  In fact, it is the port for a huge portion of Africa including all of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, Eastern Congo, and much of Tanzania.  I realize this is not the most commercially active place in the world, but when you have one tiny road that is supplying everything for this whole region you can get an idea of what traffic can be like.  Also, since the police do not have many vehicles, and never use them to patrol, speed limits are very soft “limits.”

As we were almost home, nearing Nairobi about 15km south of Machakos, in the pitch dark we came upon a broken down container truck.  It was completely covering our side of the road, and as Randy went to pass he saw a large truck coming the other way.  So he quickly braked and we pulled in behind the broken truck.  The Land Cruiser behind us was moving very fast and not so aware of his surroundings.  He must have seen the truck coming the other direction at the last moment and turned into us to avoid it.  Somehow he missed our back bumper by less than an inch and impacted the right rear fender and bounced off the right rear rim which was destroyed.  Glass was thrown all over us, and as the impact began, I was certain we were going to end up as pulp under the container truck.

The laws of physics cannot be suspended for brief moments, but if I did not know better… somehow he squeaked through between the two trucks.  Then he slowed briefly before speeding off to Nairobi.  We never saw him again.  The four guys who were with the broken down truck came out to help us.  At least we know that now.  They could have easily been up to no good.  They changed out the spare and beat on the fender to try to give some clearance for the spare.

We were able to get the car back on the road, minus the instruments which quit working (but later started working again).  I looked over at Randy and said, “So what are you going to do with the rest of your life?”  He smiled.

We made it without too much delay back into Nairobi.  Because of the mangled fender and lack of clearance on the tire, we crawled through any rough sections.

You do not need a near miss to know that God is sustaining you (but it helps!).  He always has a purpose, He could end it at any moment.  I now give you the opportunity to ask yourself, “So what are you going to do with the rest of your life?”

About a week before the trip, the whole family was sick.  It was a really tough flu.  Somehow I avoided it, right up until two days before.  Tuesday night I had 3 layers of clothes, and 2 blankets and I was still shivering.  I got very little sleep that night, so I stayed in bed on Wednesday.

Thursday morning at 05:00 we got moving on our bikes. The darkness and slight mist combined with oncoming headlights made for an interesting first hour and 15.  After that, it turned out to be a wonderful trip.  The road is pretty nice most of the way, and the number of trucks and buses that tried to kill us was at a minimum.  I mentioned that next trip I would like a bag of oranges or water balloons to huck at the windshields of the oncoming vehicles that used our lane to pass in spite of seeing us coming.  I guess they assumed we would move onto the shoulder.

Just before the halfway mark we went through Tsavo.  There were at least 50 baboons walking up either side of the road, it was almost as if their bus had broken down and now they were walking to the nearest petrol station.  At the Tsavo river we got a good look at the modern railroad bridge, made famous by Col. Patterson and his maneaters.  We then met up with our chase vehicle in Voi.  We tried to enter Tsavo East National Park, but there was some talk that motorcycles were banned in the park in the Act that established them.  Kenya is very sensitive with their national parks because they are a huge industry.  They bring in more money than anything else.  So the concern with motorcycles is not the safety of the riders (from the aforementioned lions) but noise for the animals.

It turned out well anyway as we headed down to Mariakani and took a dirt road that bypassed all the traffic in Mombasa.  I turned on the helmet cam for that section (videos to follow).  We slowed at every intersection and usually got 4 or 5 arms pointing us in the right direction without asking a word.  We made it back to pavement south of Kilifi and headed to Malindi, eventually ending at Watamu and Turtle Bay.  In the end it was about 600km in 8.5 hours with about 1.5 hours of stops.  I felt tired, but great.  God spared me the full force of the flu for a day.  The day before, and the day after were bad.

PDF report of the GPS track

In addition, the World Cup started.  This is the first time since 1998 that I have missed watching a match live, but I have been able to watch most of them.  Yes, I am a freak.  If you have been reading this blog, you should have already known that.

This past Sunday we went to the church in Karuri.  That is the first church in Africa where I was privileged to preach, back in March of 2007.  It is Pastor John Njuguna’s church and I really enjoy being with him and his family.  They are trying to raise money to build a permanent structure.  The current one is wood framed with mabati (corrugated steel sheets).  It is probably around 25 years old.  Termites here are brutal, so you can imagine.  When we sold our house in 2007, we used some of the proceeds to help build a house on that property for the pastor.  Now we get to be a part of building a church there.  And so do you, since we do not have any money of our own

I got a report from Pastor Edward of the church in Soweto where I taught the last computer class.  We helped fund the certificates they gave out at an Inductive Bible Study seminar they gave near Voi.  They do these as outreaches to different parts of Kenya to teach pastors how to study the Bible.  All the money we have is by God’s grace and your support, so it was really you putting the smiles on these faces.  Well, some of them are smiling, Kenyans do not often smile in pictures, even when they are happy.

The other picture is from our computer class.  I really had fun doing that.  I feel very privileged to be able to use my skills for His Kingdom.

It had rained quite a bit the night before, and from this point on, it was all dirt road.  However, dirt is not dirt when it is wet.  The mud around here is special.  It sticks to everything.  You find when walking that you will pick up a good 5 to 10 pounds of mud on your feet.  It is also very slick.  Caleb was riding on street tires and he found out that last fact all too suddenly.  No one was hurt, just a broken mirror.

The picture here is where we decided we would turn back.  It was so steep and slick, I knew if we went down there we were committed to going out another way.  I went down with my bike to see how bad it was, and it probably took me 20 minutes to get it back up 20 meters.  The mud was throwing steam off the engine.  I got another picture after I got my bike up.

Everywhere you stop in Kenya, kids show up.  These kids did not speak much Swahili.  You should have seen there faces when I greeted them in Kikuyu, and the shock of us removing our helmets, “Gai!”  I asked some of the men in the area about the road ahead.  Kenyan’s are very optimistic.  They were sure we could make it, it was “just there.”  However, when I asked about the road ahead, I got the response, “matope, matope sana!” – “Muddy, very muddy!”  Eventually we had to move on, but the celebrity aspect of being treated like an astronaut is tempting to the ego.

In the end we grabbed a few new roads for OSM.  Caleb got off to his softball games, and I got home before Cammy and the boys.  Not a bad day.  It was a lot like life, good day, but not what was expected.

When I got home, I went and found a friend Peter, who often washes my bike.  He was a car washer near Kenyatta Market, but with his desire, some prompting and a little financial help, he has become a shoe salesman.  He still washes my bike, because I pay him well, about $4 for 2 hours of cleaning.  That day it was 3 hours, he asked, “Where is this mud from?!”