Flashbacks

As I watch footage of the recent shootings here in the States; one witness speaking of what she saw and how she will never forget it, I think about events in my life that I can recall as if they happened yesterday; some good, some not so good.

My biggest concern going on my trip to Kenya was Somali bandits on the road from Isiolo to Samburu which in my book of concerns is a big one but I had read that the situation had gotten better in recent years. It wasn't the bandits at all though that cause me flashbacks today. That event happened on a drive to Nairobi on the A109 roadway; a two lane tarred road. Many roads in Kenya are either not tarred or are pitted with pot holes which made people have to drive very slow. When they hit a good stretch of road people tended to drive very fast.

I hadn't noticed any speed limit signs or traffic cops just a plethora of cars zooming around us and by us on that Sunday morning. Our plan was to get to Nairobi by noon for lunch then drive the balance of the hundred miles to Treetops Lodge in the Abedare forest - the lodge where Princes Elizabeth on February 6, 1952 went up the stairs to her room a princess and came down them a queen because her father passed away in the night. For me the lodge was certainly interesting and historic but also a stop over point on my way to my final destination of Samburu another four hour drive the next day.

We were about twenty minutes from the city of Nairobi. There was one car in front of us on the two lane road. I remember distinctly we were discussing the Mau Mau revolution that took place in Kenya in the mid 1950's when a car passed us then passed the car in front of us and sped quickly out of sight. Only slightly further down the road another car passed us. Two minutes later he pulled out to pass the car in front of him but did so at the crest of a hill. And the worst happened.

It looked like the car that passed us turned toward the sky. The two cars that hit head on went flying straight up metal came off and flew away at warp speed and yet I can still see it today in slow motion. Twisted metal scraps that were once vital pieces of a car landed all around us. My driver stopped the van and jumped out to help. Other cars stopped. Farmers from the field came running. A couple of Maasai men ran up in full dress; shuka and beads. I sat in the van stunned and shaking.

I haven't wanted to remember what I am about to write but I see it again and again in my head; a young girl got out of the rumpled metal bleeding from everywhere. She attempted to walk but her legs were crushed so she fell to the ground. She didn't move again.

My driver came back to the van. "There's really no one to help," he said somewhat matter of fact I am sure out of shock. Both cars were filled with people many if not all died in that wreck that day. We drove on. I said nothing. I couldn't believe what I had witnessed. Subconsciously I was sitting with my legs Indian style. Every muscle in my body was tense. I flinched as cars passed.

Not far down the road the first car that passed us was pulled over. A man was out of the car with a beer in his hand waving us down. I came back to reality when my driver pulled over. After an exchange in Swahili the man threw his beer bottle on the road breaking it to bits, obviously drunk. My driver told me the man asked him if he had seen his friends car. My driver told him they had been in a wreck and that he should go back to them. The two cars were traveling from a wedding that Sunday morning.

I was so adversely affected by witnessing the wreck that I almost asked the driver to take me to the airport in Nairobi so I could come home. But I didn't and I am glad I didn't. The rest of the journey was amazing but the incident replays in my head often.

I later learned that Kenya has the highest rate of road accidents in the world. If I had known that fact going in I would not have planned as much driving as I did in that country. Instead I had read about the Somali bandits whom thank God I never saw.