The Longest Walk

Thursday night, August 20th I premiereed the Tenwek video at Tenwek, and it was very warmly recieved. Having a large weight lifted off my shoulders on friday and being at y childhood home I decided it was a good time to take a walk. I knew right where to head, the waterfall at Tenwek is one of my favorite places in the world. I took a nice leasurely walk down, down down the road and came upon the tranquil familiar sight of the water cascading over the falls and pummeling the pools below. I took a deep breath and began to relish the sound of the falling water, when i happened to look down stream and see a teenage boy standing akwardly behind a large rock, covering himself and looking at me as though trying to figure out what I was doing. Realizing he was taking a bath over there, I decided it would be rather less comfortable for both of us if I stuck around even if I decided not to look his direction.

As I headed back up the hill, a little disappointed in my venture to the falls I noticed a path just off from the road that led on up the hill. Feeling my disappointment replaced with a sense of adventure I set off on this rough steep path, not really sure if it would take me out to the road or not, but I knew I wouldn't get lost so it was merely a matter of trying and if I failed I could just turn back. It was clear the path was not used frequently and it was very overgrown, but it was quite fun trying to pick my way through the bushes and see where I would come out. That is, it was fun until I got a few feet off the path and planted my foot squarely into the gewiest, thickest, mud I've ever encountered. At this point it is worth telling you that I was wearing sandals. One of my favorite pair of shoes, they are "tiva" style sandals featuring the South African flag repeated on the straps. I've had these sandals since my parents made their first trip to SA in about 1996/7. Now, those shoes did spend several years in storage in that time, but still, they have carried my feet for many many miles.

With my feet caked in mud, I pressed on squishing grimey goowie mud out from between my feet and the sandal and also from in between my toes, and only a minute later I was back on the road to my next destination, the bridge across the dam. Each step of my journey saw my feet squishing and sliding around on my sandal, and as I turned and headed down the steep hill toward the dam I took one step that was extra steep and my foot slid right out of my shoe. After a brief awkward dance I regained my balance and tried to secure my foot back in the sandal. That's when I realized my foot had actually broken the sandal. Apparently in the slip and near fall my foot had pushed right through the strap and dislodged it from the sole of the shoe, I removed the upper strap and decided there was nothing that could be done except to continue without that shoe. So I continued on my way down the hill and stood at the dam for a few moments enjoying the peaceful sound of the falls and laughing to myself about how this had been one of my most eventful journeys to the river ever.

I debated weather or not i should just drop both my shoes from the bridge and watch them float away over the dam and off the falls. I felt this would be a very poetic end to their journey, but my new found "green-conscience" wouldn't let me throw a bunch of nylon and rubber into a river. I tried to see if my poetic side could outweigh the green side when suddenly my visual arts side piped up and said "well if you're gonna do it you should at least take some pictures of them going over the falls and such, and you forgot your camera." That decided things for the time being, there was no way I could pollute the river in the name of poetry and not have something to show for it. So I had to carry one shoe and wear the other back up the hill, and if I felt like it later, return to pitch my shoes in the river.

WIth my mind made up I set out back up the hill taking what was probably the slightly longer route, but the one that had more sidewalk. Thankfully the mud on my feet dried up by this time so I could concentrate all my walking focus on not stepping on sharp rocks. The rest of the way up the hill was mostly uneventful, but I was greatly looking forward to getting back to my room for a nice shower to clean my feet off.

Upon reaching the room I headed straight to the shower and cranked on the hot water. Stepping in I found the water exceedingly hot! I turned the cold tap and waited, nothing happened. I turned the hot down a bit, still no cooler. I decided to turn the hot all the way down and see just how much cold i had coming. When the hot was off there was no water! I turned up the cold, but nothing came. I spun the handle till I thought it was about to come off, not a drop. I turned everything back off and tried the sink, no cold. The water had been cut off temporarily. I think i only had hot because of what was sitting in the water heater. I was disappointed in not being able to take a full on shower, but knew I would survive, the big problem now became, how to clean the mud off my feet without burning them. After a moment the solution came to me to wet my wash cloth with water from the sink's hot tap, and wipe my feet off. It was a little less satisfying, but got the job done so I could go through the rest of the day without feeling like a jerk for tracking mud everywhere.

So that's my story, I guess if were a preacher I could come up with a sermon from it or something, but I feel like it's just an interesting story of a days walk and that's good enough. What I can say is that I praise God that He gave me a joyful spirit that could laugh at each unique beat on this path.