Back to the Desert-Turkana Report

Sorry for the delay but we have not had a good Internet connection since we arrived in Turkana, hence this report is several days old.
We left Eldoret around 4:30 am and arrived in Lodwar, Turkana at 1:15pm without any problems. The truck ran great, the new tires make an unbelievable difference and the brakes held up this trip. Bro.Eddie is able to make this trip in about 7.5 hrs in his Prado so I feel we did very well in the “green camel”. During the trip there are many reminders that we have re-entered a territory that is far removed from the rest of society in Kenya. For example one of the villages we pass through around day break had a large gathered next to the road. As we approached the crowd we could see that they were looking at dead man next to the road who had obviously been beaten with his hands bound behind his back, feet bound and severely beaten or dragged through the streets. That is not something you see every day but serves as a reminder of the harshness and sometimes brutality of the land where God has called us. There is another region known as Polcot country or “no-mans” land that we came through around 9-10am where you see small groups of men on the road with AK-47’s, always a little unnerving but we moved right on past with many waves ,however, I notice my foot gets a little heavier on the gas around those men. As we enter into the South Turkana game park we did not see the elephants as we did last time we came through with Bro. Eddie. The one thing that we immediately notice was the change in temperature. Eldoret is almost 7000ft. above sea level with weather comparable to Seattle, Washington while Turkana is like sub-Sahara and weather comparable to Death Valley, Arizona in the hottest part of the year. So we have transitioned from what they call “smiling weather” in Eldoret to what
we call relentless heat of the Turkana, desert. The only consolation is that the heat reminds us of our home state of Florida where we have lived our entire adult lives and it does not bother us. Special thanks to Bro. Eddie for letting us stay at his place. We are thankful for the blessing but it comes complete with mice (1 Dead), Huge scorpion (1 Dead) and plenty of palmetto bugs as we called them in Florida. While we are here we taking care of some repairs to the fence at the house we have secured for our August move to Lodwar.
Seems that the neighbors goats have taken up residence due to the numerous holes in the fence. We also journeyed this way to make way for Bob Clark who is the missionary we bought all our stuff from in
hopes that he will leave his Discovery Land Rover with us when he is done with it. It is a complex story that is too lengthy and in-depth to cover but there is a possibility that he will let us use his vehicle while he is in the states under the condition we maintain it.
We are praying to that end because it is a much newer vehicle than we are driving. We are thankful for all those that have given to the repairs ($5,000.00) for the “green camel” and it is in so much better shape than when we bought it. So we will see how it all works out.
This also gives us a much needed break from language school and gives us the opportunity to use what we have learned as not many people speak English in Turkana. We will also try to see all of Bro. Eddies
Pastors while here and take care of his needs with the Bible Institute. So while our back’s are sore from the beating yesterday on what is probably the worst road in the world we are glad to back in Turkana. Thanks for taking the time to ride along this journey of faith with us and I will send pictures when we get a good enough Internet connection.
God Bless you all.

Chuck & Terry Fernandez

Kenya, East Africa