JOURNAL OF A WALK FOR PEACE OF SOJOURNER FREE

“Who Is My Family? My Blood, Or Those Who Walk With Me?”
Journal to Kilometer 1181 (With 429 to go with phase 1), by Jeff Knaebel.

Early in the morning we passed by Apple and walnut orchards, and came upon a women with her cow.  The lady carried a large basket of local fruit, called Dak.  “Take all you want”  she said, tilting the basket towards us.

Further on, it happened by chance that Jeff was in the lead to negotiate a somewhat marginal move.  A thin veneer of landslide rubble clinging to a ledge the width of a shoe , with a terminator sheer drop below.  A protruding overhang of cliff face forced turning a sharp conner while bent low for the backpack to clear.  Jeff managed it solo and the porters following with heavy high loads took the hand of a local chap in order to negotiate the crier.

Barely on the other side, our leadsman Pathram meets a young fellow coming the other direction and carrying by head strap a 20 gallon can of diesel.  As the two men attempt to squeeze passed each other on the narrow ledge, the young man slips and begins to be pulled over the edge by his heavy load.  Only the quick grasp and pull of our Brave Pathram saved his life.

Then came a tough , steep pitch down to a river crossing ahead of our night halt.  Our Cameraman fell on this pitch and hurt a previously injured knee.  Stove up and in pain he carried on cheerfully without complaint.

We meet an old man aged 78, his son, and little grandson of about 7 years, moving up a steep pitch in single file, loads of wood rope-strap on their backs.  The elder said to Jeff, “It was better in the old days before the roads came.  Life was peaceful.  The times were good.”

At our tent camp supper this night, Our American cameraman said, “This is the happiest moment of my life.  Away from all the craziness.  Peaceful.  And it’s the people.  As sore as I am, I feel so good.”

Then he spoke about the Christ.  “You know, Jesus asked a man who had been sent by his mother to call him to her while he was addressing his Disciples,  ‘Who is my family?  My Blood, or those who walk with me”"

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Satyagrahi's Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.