Throughout his stay in Africa, Griffin displays an incredible knack for getting out of "African situations," or situations you could only get yourself into in Africa. Witness the presence of tribal tension in the last blog. But Griffin's incredible luck is no better illustrated than in the passage about his flight back from Lake Turkana to Nairobi. After extensive and far from perfect field repairs to his Cessna, Griffin makes the two hour flight back, only to discover afterwards that, among other things, his left wing was held together only by the plane's shell, and would have disintegrated with a good bump. On top of that, his engine crankshaft had a hairline fracture, which could have resulted in engine failure mid-flight.
The author says it best however, "these sobering facts were best not dwelt upon." To make light of the incident, Kipsoi's spear is hung over the pilot's common room door.
It's at this point that you start to realize how well you feel you know Scott and Krystyne Griffin. The character development all starts to come together, and you bond with Scott during his ordeal trying to rescue his plane. You really want to see him succeed in his effort to rescue his plane.
At the end of chapter eight, another lesson in the fragility of life is taught to Griffin. David Huntington, one of his few close friends in Africa, and a UN worker there is killed in a car crash on the N'gong Road. Life must now go on for Scott with one less person to confide his troubles in.
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