January 2009: It had only been four days since we moved to Botswana and already we had a Cluster Meeting in Rustenburg, South Africa we were embarking for. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with fellow 'co-workers' and other TCKs (Third Culture Kid) for a few days. Several families spent four days at a resort to share about the work that was going on where each family lived, to worship together and partake in activities together. It was very relaxing. The morning everyone was heading home we were all walking to the car park to load the luggage into our vehicles. We had a very interesting surprise waiting for each one of us. All of the vehicles in the car park were covered in brown hand prints. Baboons had marked their territory with the poop. Kindly enough the employees at the resort were out washing each vehicle. It was quite humorous and just the beginning of my baboon encounters.
July 2009: We had been living in Botswana for almost seven months when my sister Holly came to visit us! It was a sweet reunion. My family and I decided since we would be picking up Holly at the Bulawayo, Zimbabwe airport we might as well take a trip to Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side!
We soaked in the sites and sounds of the beauty of the falls and followed the paved walkway, being rained on by the water falling over the edge and crashing against the rocks at the bottom and spraying upwards at us. The beauty of the majestic falls really made you appreciate how beautiful God is! Words and photographs cannot even do justice to seeing Victoria Falls with your own eyes.
We were nearing the end of the walkway, leading back to the car park, when we came across dozens of baboons. As we were walking we saw about five baboons to the right of the pathway and we pulled out our cameras to take photos. As I was looking at the five baboons yards away from us, I backed up to get them in the photo when I almost stepped off the pathway. I looked behind me to make sure I didn't trip and what I saw definitely gave me a fright. There was a baboon laying on the ground twelve inches from where my foot stood. I slowly moved back onto the path. Thankfully these baboons were use to humans so were not vicious unless provoked.
We got our pictures and went along our way. We stopped at the restrooms before leaving and as we were waiting for all of us to finish we heard the screaming of the baboons and knew immediately something was not right. We backtracked to where the baboons were to be sure everyone that might be around was okay. When we approached the scene this is what we saw:
Three African men were standing back to back and a mother baboon was screaming at them. There was an older European couple at the other end of the path standing still as to not bother the baboons. A couple more baboons started to go in at the African men, but there was no serious attack. After about ten or so minutes the baboons cooled down and the Africans and the Europeans were able to make it the rest of the way down the path. We don't know if the men were provoking the baboons or if they got too close or if it had anything to do with the babies, but it was definitely terrifying, especially since there were dozens of baboons all over the place. In the end everyone was safe and nothing serious happened.
May 2010: My parents, younger brother Luke and I were driving back from helping out at 40/40 Training (learning to live and minister in the city and out in the bush) in Petauke and Lusaka, Zambia. We had a long trip ahead of us as we were driving back to Francistown, Botswana. We decided that since we would be staying in Livingston, Zambia, to split up our driving time, we might as well take a trip to Victoria Falls on the Zambia side.
We went fairly early in the morning to once again see the beautiful falls. We were excited to see them from a different point of view this time. As we walked along the pathway that took us to several lookouts onto the falls, there were signs and warnings of baboons. We saw them spread out along the pathway and went about our way. We decided to take over one hundred steps down to the Boiling Pot, which is were the two Zambezi streams meet and create a whirlpool (many rafting trips occur along this waterway). Just as we had gotten to the bottom of the steps we had to take a dirt path that would take us to the Boiling Pot. As we approached that pathway we came into contact with a dozen baboons sitting on a fallen tree that blocked the pathway. Although they seemed calm and we probably could have squeezed passed them, we did not want to risk being in their territory or come into close contact with the baby baboon, especially after our other experiences, so ended up backtracking up all those stairs.
I absolutely love having these memories and experiences on top of many more! I know they will definitely not be the last.
No comments:
Post a Comment