{"id":717,"date":"2010-07-24T15:52:29","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T20:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/?p=717"},"modified":"2010-09-05T20:02:28","modified_gmt":"2010-09-06T01:02:28","slug":"what-a-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2010\/07\/what-a-road\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT A ROAD!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\">I&#8217;ve tried to come up with adjectives that can best describe the road I drove to Loko on Thursday and I don&#8217;t know that any are adequate. \u00a0It was probably the most treacherous road I&#8217;ve driven here. \u00a0Treacherous because there were clearly a couple times when I wondered where the tipping point was as we were angled over 30 degrees one direction and then suddenly went the same to the other direction. \u00a0What angle were we really at: \u00a030 or 35 or 40 or even 45? \u00a0I don&#8217;t know. \u00a0Here&#8217;s a picture of one section we faced:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/view-uphill-to-stuck-truck.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-718\" title=\"view uphill to stuck truck\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/view-uphill-to-stuck-truck.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You may be wondering why we decided to make this trek. \u00a0We were traveling from Gemena to Loko and on to Gbado-Lite to encourage churches with the large fund campaign they have going in July. \u00a0We spent the night at Loko, worshipped and spoke at the early AM (6h15) worship before work and then left for Gbado-Gboketsa and Gbado-Lite.<\/p>\n<p>Back to the road. \u00a0At other times there were just voluminous holes and crevasses. \u00a0It was muddy and slippery so we used 4WD a lot. \u00a0If you didn&#8217;t pay attention and went to fast you could easily slip into a crevasse in the road or one alongside it. \u00a0Here&#8217;s one of the trucks that was stuck that we had to be creative to pass:<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/stuck-pickup-view-uphill.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-724\" title=\"stuck pickup-view uphill\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/stuck-pickup-view-uphill.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"_mcePaste\" style=\"text-align: left\">\n<p>Getting up this slippery very greasy hill was complicated by the cross-wise pickup you see in the photo above. \u00a0I don&#8217;t know how they got there, but their back wheels were in a deep rut. \u00a0I was able to go around them to the Right over tramped down grass going uphill. \u00a0Farther up the hill was the big truck which I went around to the Left.<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/truck-stuck-in-road.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-725\" title=\"truck stuck in road\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/truck-stuck-in-road.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\">\n<p>The story gets better &#8211; add to this the fun of the Songbolo bridge:<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left\">\n<p><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/Songbolo-bridge-crossing-scout-team.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-726\" title=\"Songbolo bridge crossing scout team\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/Songbolo-bridge-crossing-scout-team.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We could not get up and on the big log we wanted to get on because it was too much of a climb up on our end. \u00a0And it was lightly sprinkling so the log was wext and hard to get on. \u00a0We pushed 2 closer together and hoped they would support the truck, but the outside one moved. \u00a0Finally we connected wtih a couple UN vehicles coming the other way. \u00a0They loaned us the metal plates you see in this photo:<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/Songbolo-bridge-crossing-onto-log.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-727\" title=\"Songbolo bridge crossing onto log\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/Songbolo-bridge-crossing-onto-log.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>We return over these same roads on Sunday-Monday this week.<br \/>\nThanks for your prayers for our travels,<br \/>\nPete &amp; Cindy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=717&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve tried to come up with adjectives that can best describe the road I drove to Loko on Thursday and I don&#8217;t know that any are adequate. \u00a0It was probably the most treacherous road I&#8217;ve driven here. \u00a0Treacherous because there were clearly a couple times when I wondered where the tipping point was as we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>WHAT A ROAD! - Ekstrands in Congo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2010\/07\/what-a-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WHAT A ROAD! - Ekstrands in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve tried to come up with adjectives that can best describe the road I drove to Loko on Thursday and I don&#8217;t know that any are adequate. \u00a0It was probably the most treacherous road I&#8217;ve driven here. \u00a0Treacherous because there were clearly a couple times when I wondered where the tipping point was as we [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2010\/07\/what-a-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ekstrands in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-24T20:52:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-09-06T01:02:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2010\/07\/view-uphill-to-stuck-truck.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete &amp; 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