Death Of A Hero (IIl)

SAHARA DESERT: THE HORROR & THE VICTORY

AS I continued on my drive, I could not help, but think about my unpleasant experiences of the previous day. At that moment, the entire picture of how tiring this trip was suddenly became clearer. I felt lonely. It was a very trying moment for me, and I immediately realized that the time had come for my faith to be tested.

In all honesty, words are quite inadequate to describe all that had transpired the previous day. The weather condi­tions and experiences were so horrifying that I almost gave up the fight but for the love of my people and my will to come home alive. With mycommitment to seeing that the menace being caused by desertification is stopped, I concluded that it would be just fine to carry on, in spite of whatever danger I might encounter.

My car, which was converted from a pleasant car to a ‘desert car’, felt the abuse of the harsh desert conditions. The car, too, has some stories to tell as to what transpired between its tires and the desert sands. Not only did the tires receive more than they bargained for, the other parts had a hard time trying to cope with the unfriendly desert tracks that were good for neither man nor machine.

Before the trip started in Lagos, my son, Uche, collected some information for me from the internet, which was titled Desert Corner. In this report was the information that between 1978 and 1998, over 200 people, mainly Euro­peans and Americans, had died trying to cross the Sahara

Desert. I believe that Uche was probably sending polite signals to me on the need to abort the trip.

These statistics notwithstanding, here I was, all alone, exposed to dangers and horrors, and not even sure of what might befall me. It was now time for an open conversation, or if you like, confession to God. I started talking to God. I told Him that my second attempt to cross the Sahara Des­ert might have been a mistake and should be considered overly ambitious, and that I had been carried away by my successful maiden trip, and sincerely not out of any selfish interest; but this time around, I was making this particular trip to save lives, maybe thousands of live, so I begged Him to please, please save me, and if He did grant this request, I would never again attempt an adventure like this.

It was my second time to feel this way since embarking on this voyage. Thereafter, I got a feeling that my request was being granted, or at least considered, because I picked up courage. I was immediately better focused, my eyes cleared, and all I did from that point on was look ahead. I remembered my wife, my family, and friends. I started dream­ing with my eyes open. I dreamt of how I would make the most impor­tant call of the voyage; a call to inform them about my successful crossing of the desert. If for no rea­son, I would call to end their agony. I thought also of how my success would be announced over the radio and tele­vision, and how it would be written all over the newspapers. Now my spirit was up, and the pains that I had felt all over my body started to disappear. All of a sudden, as if I was being startled out of a trance, I realized that no one else but me would conclude this trip, and not just conclude for the sake of it, but I must also obtain a meaningful result through data collection to carry on with the fight against desertification.

As I drove, the reading on the speedometer that I took after the third day’s trip kept flashing back into my memory and I began unconsciously driving for the sole purpose of making up for the loss in the original distance to be covered. On this day, the car experienced more pressure than it had witnessed in the past days. I found myself driving as if I had my eyes closed. I probably looked like a teenager celebrating his inde­pendence from being driven by his parents. The whole attitude with which I acted was as if I cared little about life. I continued almost on smooth tracks (at least, better than those of the previous day) until sunset.

Going through all that had happened this day, I con­sidered the journey concluded, and I started fantasizing on how my data would be put to use and this evil called desertification would be brought to a halt. As usual, I woke early, did the constants, and before I knew what was happening,

I was already on the tracks. The tracks were compact and generally nice. The drive was smooth, and for the first time after midday, I came to some high spirits, and not too long after that, I witnessed the first sign of life when I saw a bird. I could not believe it was real, and I started wondering again about life and death.

I recalled the skeletons that I had seen two days earlier, and I began to wonder if the bird I saw was real or sent by the dead to pilot me home to the world beyond. Meanwhile, I continued to drive on the beautiful tracks. I was driving very fast, at about 80 to 100km/hr. Things started to look good again as more birds came into view – two, three, close to a dozen of them, so they were real after all.

At about 4pm, the heat was going down to about 80o F, so I decided to stop and watch the birds properly. I convinced myself that I was not dreaming.

I must be getting close to life. I am going to be alive again! As I looked around, I saw a big sandstorm gather­ing in the distance. I was not worried, because I felt as though I was see­ing lights in a far-away land. After watching the birds and the beautiful scenery with the distant sandstorm for a few mo­ments, I saw real life coming back to my whole body, and my mental state returned to normal. Before I knew it, I started to sing again. This time, the song that I sang was, “Nobody knows the trou­ble I have seen, nobody knows, but Jesus.