Orange

How Great Thou Art played in the matatu as Mt. Longonot came into view. The setting sun streamed in orange beams around the peak, illuminating the dust saturated sky. We climbed the escarpment, and intervening speed bumps, with the sun shining directly through the bus. My seat mate seemed amused when, in a moment of self forgetfulness, I waved to my shadow. A young couple, dancing/walking along the footpath, apparently thought it was directed at them, or maybe their enthusiastic greeting was simply due to my race. As we crawled upwards behind a struggling lorry I thought of highway robbers who take advantage of lorries' lack of power and unload the trucks as they 'drive'. We crested the top of the ridge and the valley was lost from view, but the sun still flashed in orange bursts between the trunks of the evergreen screen. The heat of the valley floor dropped with the sun, and gave way to the thin, cool air of the high plateau. Above the sunset Venus gleamed, its orange tint subtly carrying the torch of the faded day.