on the road

2.45 pm – the police escort arrived. We were off – incredible! Full of anticipation, we got into the cars. At 3.30 pm we drove out of the hotel grounds. This was the first time that I had seen an African city. Yesterday evening it was dark and you could see next to nothing. I was really shocked by what I saw: a chaotic tangle of electric cables, a lot of rubbish, corrugated iron huts, merchants selling used goods in home-made wooden lean-tos. I had seen pictures like that in books and on the television but thought that it was only part of the truth. Here, it is like that everywhere. A sea of corrugated iron huts, dense traffic and a vast swarm of people. Many of them looked happy, despite the conditions in which they live. Another thing that struck me was the presence everywhere of Jesus. Bumper stickers, signs on motorcycles.