give me africa: Fun in Loki

So we went to Loki (Kenya/Sudan border town; a UN hotspot where they pumped supplies into during the war) last week to restock our supplies for the next two months.

I’d say the theme of the trip was eating.

Within four or so hours of being there, I’d had five cold sodas, two milkshakes, a T-bone steak (or at least the paltry Kenyan version thereof), real french fries and a heaping bowl of ice cream. It was—in a word—incredible.

Loki is basically a dusty, hot mess full of the typical run-down African-style shops and bars, but there is this wonderful oasis called 748—basically a haven for the Western aid workers. There just aren’t words for how great this place is. Imagine—a milkshake!!! We don’t even have a refrigerator out here, let alone a freezer. And a pool table. And there was even a swimming pool at Kate Camp. And cold pop… oh my. I don’t even like soda and it was amazing. Daniel and I spent two days in the Uni-Mog getting the team supplies, and everywhere we went, he’d be like, “Want a cold soda?” By the end of our first day of shopping, we’d drank seven sodas each. Ridiculous.

Despite all the great food and potential for fun, though, the best part was getting back to Husa and thinking… “Home… finally.” I missed our little village and our new friends quite a bit.

PICTURES:

It took us eight hours for us singles to get into Loki in the Uni-Mog (my aforementioned favorite vehicle of all time). We’re forced to be really close for a really long time, but no lives (or tempers) were lost. Praise God.

We found this sweet river bed to take lunch in. This is Jen (from Massachusetts ) and Craig (from Australia ).

Kim and Jen, enjoying the plush back seat the fellas built.

I was stoked about playing pool at 748. Steve (my team leader) was equally stoked, so we took first game. I’d like to happily report that I whooped Steve our first game. I do believe this is why he’s giving me this ridiculous face here. I’d say this is the best picture of him I’ve ever seen. I promise he’s a competent team leader. (And I will confess that he beat me our second game. We didn’t get to play the tie-breaker quite yet.)