The Unending Walk

I am back in Diguna now, after five days away on ministry with teens from our church who are under the Compassion project. There was also a girls’ football (soccer) team with us and it was a great experience. The definite highlight of the trip was the 40 kilometer trek from Ensonorua to Magadi town, a feat accomplished by 65 people in eight hours. We had two major stops, one for debriefing at the General Service Unit (GSU) training camp and one for lunch at Ol Donyo Nyokie. 

The walk from the GSU training camp to Ol Donyo Nyokie was the hardest part because we passed through a rocky terrain that offered the greatest challenge to most of us. The sun was unbearably hot and the water in our water bottles got warm pretty fast. There was a boy who had a disability and had to be carried at various points of the trek, this was a great show of team work for us and the bigger boys were very helpful to him.

We spent two days at Ensonorua, a place with little water and lots of dust. We slept on the floor for the two days we were there since we hadn’t carried mattresses. Some of us quickly adapted to it and some of us had more trouble with it, but nobody wanted to wake up early for jogging so it was eventually normal. We painted the doors of the school we were staying at, cleaned the classrooms and neatened the compound. We did the same thing at our eventual destination (Magadi Primary School), although we had mattresses and fans in Magadi.

The food was always more than enough for me, but the voracious appetites of some of our members could hardly be catered to adequately. We played a football match in the heat of Magadi and won by at least four goals to one. I say ‘at least’ because no one really bothered to count, we were having too much fun on the sidelines. Our girls’ team played against a boys’ team from the area and lost 0-3 but gave a good showing nonetheless.

We returned back to Ongata Rongai yesterday night and some of the kids had to sleep in church (Deliverance Church Ongata Rongai) because it was too late and too dangerous to go home at that time. Some of the leaders purchased bread and milk for their supper and then spent the night with them in the church building. Today, everyone goes home to a well-deserved rest as the kids prepare for school and the adults go back to work. What a week!