The saintly immigration officer tending to his chickens.
We woke up with the sunrise and started to pack up camp to make our final run for the border. Our 72 hours courtesy of our dear friends at immigration was ticking away. All along the road people would smile and wave at us. Some little kids would excitedly run out from their baths just to wave at us.
The road was very good for the start of the journey and then turned to sand for the remainder. We stopped in Gamboma to go to the market and buy some fresh baguettes, vegetables and freshly pounded peanut butter. A little while later, we stopped for a picnic. David and Peta had a little miracle of a freezer attached to the back seat. We enjoyed our baguettes with some butter and sandwich meat brought over from South Africa!
We got to the immigration office a little later than expected. We had spent a lot of time at the customs office, which was our first stop along the way. There were some cute kids marching and chanting army tunes. They even made their own hats and belts out of some leaves. From customs, we then had to check in with the police. They handwrote all sorts of information in their book, I’m not even really sure what it was all for but hey, procedure is procedure. We heard the bongo drums and chanting coming from the church nearby so it just added to the ambiance of the straw police hut. Once they were satisfied with the information they gathered, we moved across the street to the next hut to finally meet the immigration man.
This man was possibly the sweetest person I have ever met. No need to worry about corruption with this guy, he had posters of Jesus all over his hut. He proceeded to handwrite all the information that the police officers just took shortly before and would ask all sorts of questions. He was eager to hear about Obama and asked if it is true that a man who looks like him could be president. It is nice to talk about the US with excitement again. I don’t have to try to justify or apologize for anything. Especially here in Africa, people are very excited about the election and are very proud that a man whose father is from Kenya is in the running. They feel like it is too good to be true. We sat chatting with the lovely immigration man for a bit too long, he already had to light his kerosene lamp. We had to ask for permission to set up camp on their grounds, once it is dark it is really difficult to find a camping spot. He was very pleased to have us camp on the grounds and promised that we would rest their undisturbed. Fantastic!
Dinner: Pork & butternut squash in a Thai red curry sauce
