Word for the day

In my quest for mastery of the swahili language, I often forget words that I learn. Some days I just can't make them stick in my head. In order for them to find a permanent place in my memory, I need to use them or there needs to be a context. Usually, there is a word of the day for me. This past Friday, I learned two new words! Kwama and matope which means stuck and mud. Any guesses as to how I learned those words? That's right, you guessed it. What an adventure! The rainy season definitely makes life interesting here.

We were heading up to the village of Likamba Friday morning. As we turned off the tarmac road, I quickly realized that it was going to be a slippery day. However, I am not sure why but the roads to Likamba have had a lot of erosion. Looking over the valley you see endless paths of ditches that are between 5 - 15 feet deep. The terrain is hilly and a bit trecherous. Since the previous week we had gotten stuck towards the end of the trip and had to walk, I was hoping that things would go a bit differently. As we were driving past a particularly deep ditch, I had a vision of our truck laying on the side stuck in the ditch. So, I turned around and asked Isack if he had already prayed for our journey. At that moment, the slipping into the ditch began.... Thankfully, our driver was able to put the car into park before we fell in. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. After getting out of the car, I quickly checked out the consistency of the mud. I felt it was important to fully understand how wet the mud was. Before completely falling, I caught myself with my hands. It took a lot of leaves to get the mud off!

While we assessing the situation, several men walked by. From what I understand, they planned to just pass us by and assumed that no one spoke Masaai. However, both the driver and Miriam(our admin) are Masaai and quickly greeted them. The men reluctantly decided to help. The ground needed to be dug up to try to give the tires some traction. So, Miriam went to one of the huts nearby to get a pick and a hoe. After a lot of digging and a lot of mud later, the car was able to be lifted over onto the better patch. Once the tires were able to get some traction, the driver took off. Because we were not sure if it was safe, the driver took the car and we walked. In case any of you are thinking about walking in the mud, please wear shoes other than flip flops. They are not the easiest to walk in. I almost slipped SO many more times. Everyone had to help me and I felt like an idiot! There was nothing left to do but laugh and enjoy my time skating on the mud.

Eventually we felt like it was safe to get in the car again. However, not to long after we ended up in a ditch. The car was half in and half out on its side. Getting out of the car was a bit of an adventure. I am not sure how, but the truck was able to drive and eventually right itself. Once again, however we walked. I couldn't help but laugh that we would walk and the car would drive. I felt like what was the point in bringint the truck if we were just going to walk. This time, we just walked all the way to our final destination. Needless to say, we were a bit late. Since it is Africa, we actually arrived before anyone else. Sweet Miriam washed my feet, what a servant. I tried to protest but she insisted. It definitely gave me more of an idea of what it meant to wash someone's feet during the time of Christ. After all that traveling, people would want to have their feet clean because they would be DIRTY. To have someone that you respect washing your feet was very humbling.

Going back was not quite as adventurous, THANK GOD! We have learned that we need to travel with our own pick and hoe!