Stuck for The Day

In crossing one of the river beds on Sunday, our big blue truck got stuck. Our ACTS drivers and crew tried to get the truck out, but could not. Thus began a day that changed all plans and expectation. After early attempts to extract the truck using sand straction plates and a tow line to ACTS 4WD Land Cruiser resulted in burrying the rear axle and spare tire, an all hands effort began. The are no amount of words to fully capture the challenge of fixing this problem, but here's a quick summary: After an initial attempt to dig out the wheels and use the sand boards failed once again, a trench was dug, and earthen dam built, and the river was rerouted. This was all done with two shovels, a machettie, and a pick axe, oh, and every eating plate and bowl we had. The dirtyist part of all had the same guys that keep the road to Hume Lake clear in the winter, crawling in the mud under the truck, digging out the axle, spare tire, etc. Finally, after about 8 hours, the truck was out of the river bed. Unfotunately, it immediately became stuck in the deep, dry sand. And at this point we learned from the Kenyan police officers that ACTS driver drove 40 Kilometers to hire for protection, that the road ahead of us was washed out, requiring us to recrosses the same river we'd just crossed. No one had eaten, it was dark, and we were finding scorpions in the sand. We found another place, to cross the river, cut down tree branches, filled in sand, and got the truck and all the luggage and gear we had removed from the truck loaded up by about 10:00 p.m. Throughout all of this, throughout the discouragements, we prayed. While this was not what we had hoped for, we were blessed by this experience.