Update 11--Boat Ride

[Note--you can see photos of this episode if you go on my Facebook album and go to photo 75.]

On our last morning in Kisumu we arranged to go on a boat ride to see wildlife on Lake Victoria with Titus, a guy that we met seven years ago when the Mennonite missionaries recommended him. Back then, he took us out in his little rowboat a couple of times to watch birds aka "baaahds" in Kenyan English.

We were scheduled to leave Kisumu in the mission van, accompanied by two teenage MK's, at about 11:00, so I got as much ready the night before as I could, scheduling it all out in my head--early boat trip, hurry back, pack up, clean the guest quarters, leave.

We recall that my children and I are not the most efficient cleaners and packers in the world, so we needed all the time we could get.

But I didn't want to miss out on that boat trip.

"It'll only be an hour and a half," promised Paul. "That's what I told Titus."

Ok, that'll work.

We drove out to the lake in the early morning, passing scattered groups of uniformed school children walking to school.

The vast masses of water hyacinth had blown far enough offshore that we could board at Hippo Point, a pretty almost park-like area where we used to hang out on Sunday evenings when we spent 3 months in Kisumu.

Titus was obviously coming up in this world. He had a bigger boat, for one thing, still made of rough wood but painted a high-gloss salmon color. The seats had backs and even more amazing, padding. And there was a home-made roof over the boat to keep off the sun, and a real motor at the back. The crowning touch was that he provided life jackets for us.

Wow.

Oh, by the way, said Titus to Paul, this will take two hours if you want to see the hippos.

Titus's assistant curled up in the front of the boat and we set out, slowly motoring along the shore to admire egrets and little hoppy yellow birds in the bushes and tall papyrus plants growing along the side. We passed women doing laundry by hand, fishermen preparing their boats for the day, other fishermen setting their nets, and people bathing, which of course made us respectfully admire the scenery off to the other side.

Soon we came up on three hippos. They popped their huge bulgy eyes and nostrils out of the water and grunted at us with deep unh-unh-unhs that boomed out over the water. Hippos are known for being huge (3 or 4 tons) and vicious. When they open their mouths it reminds me of a car hood opening although believe me I wouldn't want to attach jumper cables to those massive teeth that can snap a crocodile in half with one bite and take occasional bites out of wooden boats.

As one comforting source said, "The hippo is extremely aggressive, unpredictable and unafraid of humans, upsetting boats sometimes without provocation and chomping the occupants with its huge canine teeth and sharp incisors.”

Yes, well, but we were in good hands.

We motored on and on and on, leaving the populated areas behind and seeing only thick brush at the edge of the water. Then we rounded another curve and there were lots of hippo nostrils bobbing up out of the water then disappearing. "There are 26 in this herd," said Titus.

We circled the hippos at a safe distance, slowly, once, then again. And then on the third time around, the motor suddenly stopped. We turned. Titus was looking confused and yanking on the starter cord.

The boat began drifting silently. Toward the hippos. On and on, swish by gentle swish. We sat there in cold, silent terror as Titus frantically yanked and we came closer and closer to that huge bunch, any one of which could easily have swum over and stuck his snout under our boat and flipped us over.

Finally, finally, when we were only a few yards away, [Paul and I disagree as to just how many] the guy at the front of the boat came to life, stood up, pulled a long green wooden pole from the top of the roof over our heads, and began to pole us to safety.

We all exhaled.

[Jenny, reading over my shoulder, wants you all to know she wasn't scared.]

Mr. Assistant pushed us along, push by slow push, back along the way we had come. This was going to take a long time.

Titus, in addition to his modern life jackets, also has a cell phone. He called a friend to come help us.

The friend took his time, and it was some 45 minutes before he showed up. In the meantime I took stock of our belongings to see how long we could survive if the pole wasn't long enough for deep water and we drifted out into the middle of Lake Victoria which is the size of Lake Superior. Two cameras, one water bottle, one little packet of wipes with sunscreen and bug repellent. No food.

We were glad to see the friend arrive. He clambered into the boat and fiddled with the motor and poured in more gas. Finally the motor started.

The friend left and we motored on to Hippo Point, where we left our life jackets on a pile on the shore.

"We were never in danger," said Titus. "We were on the shore side, not between the hippos and open water." I didn't believe him. Floating almost above the hippos' heads doesn't seem too safe to me.

Titus told Paul that we had actually been out there for three hours instead of the two we had arranged for, but he decided not to charge us for that extra hour! Amazing, such generosity.