Idunda and Dennis the Hero!

Saturday

It was touch and go even yesterday, but the sunshine broke though on a beautiful Saturday morning.   What could go wrong?

First off, it rained all night.  The area needs rain.  It’s a blessing, but another day or two of dryness would not be disastrous for the crops and environment.

Second, Dr. Saga’s meeting, scheduled to start at 9 AM and end at 10, did not.  He was specific and adamant that it should, but the others involved arrived at 9:30, despite his admonitions.  Dr. Saga is an Assistant to the General Secretary of the Diocese.  This is an important position.  The fact that those others were late is more a cultural matter than one of disrespect.  He had said if they needed work on, he would leave the meeting in charge of someone else, which he did.  Our departure was to be 10:30 sharp and we did get going about 11 AM.  Not bad!

We were loaded!  That is, the vehicle was loaded.  We were all high on life.  We stopped at Ipogoro, a small village on the outskirts of Iringa.  Consider it a suburb.  The schedule was to stop at Lulanzi, photograph the dispensary being built, lunch at Idete and on to Idunda.  The paved road ends abruptly outside Ipogoro and from there, except for a 2 km stretch which is paved for some reason, the road is gravel or less….

We got to Lulanzi and took photos.  The original footings still showed the error.  The contractor had made them about double the expected square footage, if I got this detail correct.  Inside, Dr. Saga noticed one of the doorways was out of square and ordered it to be repaired.  He is an astute man, well versed in many things.  He served as general contractor (and bird-dog) on his own home.  (He is also an excellent physician, for whom I have deep respect.)

To our surprise, dark clouds were sneaking up on us from behind.  We got in the car, but rain quickly followed.   The road to Idete is “hapa, hapa,” which I believe is Kihehe for “bouncy, bouncy.”  The rain picked up.  We know we would get to Idete, but that would be a decision point.  We arrived at Idete about 2 PM, no problem.  Lunch was waiting, rice, chicken, beef, sauce or “soup” and ugali if I remember correctly.  Eating is always preceded by hand washing.   One of the women pours warm water on the hands over a pan.  It’s always drip-dry. Dr. Saga and I paid attention to the recommendations I made in my brief talk on diabetes.  We ate less rice and less in general.  Good for us!  The rain shower stopped and the sun shined.  We picked up District Pastor Patson Lubawa and started out again

The road to Idunda, well, road is a huge exaggeration, is long, winding, muddy, steep and not all that much fun, especially in rainy season.  We got stuck in the mud twice.  Both times, we got out with a little pushing.  Some parts of the, uh "road" are covered with grass, with barely visible trails.  Going was slow.  Even so, in one grassy area, the trail disappeared for a moment.  Suddenly, we found ourselves sliding off the bank and hung up on the steepest slope you can imagine.  An inch in either direction would have determined whether we noticed nothing and kept on moving or instead toppling down the mountain slope, end over end, rolling about 15 times.  This happened so fast, I didn’t even see my life flash before me.  Of course, I’m old, so that takes awhile.  Thanks to Don, we remained safe.  We got out.  The angle of the tippage was frightening.  We were completely unable to move the vehicle.  To our advantage, we had a winch.  Also, there was a strategic tree to anchor the winch hook.  (Don calls this serendipity a "God thing."  Be thankful for God things.)  Unfortunately, even with the winch we were stuck.  The truck was overheating, so we wisely shut it off.  Unfortunately, we could not get it started again.

As it happened, late the night before, the General Secretary, Chavala, called and canceled on us.  We were supposed to have two vehicles since there were so many scheduled to go.  We would have had five and four in each vehicle, instead we had seven in one vehicle. 

We were stranded.  There was no cell service where we were, several km from the nearest village.  Lubawa headed off to the village with Msigwa when it was clear we needed help to get out of our predicament.  Crazy wazungu!  We sat for an hour.  In the mean time, we had another shower, so we climbed back in the car.  About 6:15, Eunice was tired of waiting so she walked down the road to try her cell.  Amazingly, she got Gary!  (Consider it another God thing.)  Gary called Dennis, Dennis returned the call and said he would leave in fifteen minutes.   He did.  He said he would fly.  He did.  We knew it would be 3 and 1/2 hours.  Msigwa returned first with some boards we could use to dig away at the dirt we thought was the key to escape.  We needed a hoe or a spade.  Eventually, about 18 men and several young onlookers arrived to help, with hoes at least.  They dug away.  It looked helpful.  We needed a battery charge; the battery having been drained with the winch did not have the power to turn the diesel over fast enough to start.  Someone on a piki piki (motorbike) retrieved a six-volt battery, which did not work.  I think we were all crestfallen. 

To our surprise, Dennis arrived at 8:20.  After three more hours of digging and fussing with the batteries, it looked like we were ready to try pulling the vehicle out.  Finally, after several false starts, we were able to pull the vehicle from its one-foot-in-the-grave status without rolling it down the hill, potentially end over end.  Of course, it still needed resuscitation.  A tow chain was hooked to it and we pulled it to get it started.  Whew!  What a relief when the lights came on and we could hear it roar! 

By now it was midnight.  Don led the way with Dennis following.  It was winding, steep, muddy, slippery and treacherous.  We arrived in Idunda to the cheers of many, including the inhabitants of the two vehicles, at 1:30 AM.  We were bushed.  Even before we got out of the vehicles, one of the pastors prayed a prayer of thanks.  Naturally, he had prayed for our safety before each leg of our journey.  Members of the congregation danced and sang.  We ate silently.  We all slept in our clothes.