K is for Khaki Jackie Goes On An Adventure

    Here at Namwianga the Harding team owns two vehicles in order to transport us where we need to go. One is a big blue bus that I’ve posted pictures of before. The other is a khaki colored Land Cruiser that we fondly call Khaki Jackie. Khaki Jackie has gotten us through some pretty rough roads plus gets us to The Haven everyday. On Sunday night, Mr. Gregerson (a family that previously lived here for about five years and has come back to visit) offered to take us out to a paddock that is surrounded by no lights so that we could easily see the stars. Mr. Gregerson and a few of our supervisors drove out into the bush to check if the gate leading onto the property with paddock was unlocked. Finding that it was they came back to pick up four others and myself. This is where Khaki Jackie’s adventure begins….

            The only part of Namwianga that I have seen at night is the area immediately surrounding our house but, having spent time in the village, I should not have been surprised at the absolute darkness of driving around at night. Once down the road leading out of The Haven area we turned down a path I had never been. After driving down this path for a while we turned directly down a path into the bush. In the 20 minutes it had taken Mr. Gregerson to check the lock and come back to retrieve us it had magically been locked. A nice local was carrying his bike over the gate upon our arrival and kindly provided us with an alternate route.

            Once the route became more difficult to see and Mr. Gregerson had to turn around a few times we began to question our decision to come on this star gazing outing. At one point we came upon two houses and Mr. Gregerson announced that he knew where we were but we needed to turn around. We kept joking that a tribal man or a lion was going to come running at Khaki Jackie. Thankfully, we eventually found a suitable spot that allowed us to see the stars without any visual interruption.

The spectacular view made the driving adventure all worth it. If I could have taken pictures I would. We could clearly see the Milky Way and two planets. The best part is that the big dipper is upside down in this hemisphere. We could see stars behind stars behind stars. One of the group members commented that it looked like a black piece of paper with holes poked in it and that God was behind it. I had never thought about it that way before and loved his perspective. I will never look at the stars again without thinking of the upside down big dipper and God smiling behind it. 

The brave group!