The Bush Week 2

To say week two started with a bang is well a little too true. We went to a local village to pick up an ox (a male castrated cow) for a team that will come in a month or so. When we got there we had to help them rope the ox and then hold onto a rope to get it under control so they could slaughter it...I know now that was the plan but they didn't tell us when they where hey come over here and hold this rope... As we, about 4 of us, held the rope we got pulled around the ring and I was in the front very close to the cow. I definitly got an adreniline rush from pulling it to the ground. After we did that the cow everntually gave up and the local bushman took a large hammer and wacked the ox on the top of the head and it shook a bit then he did it 3 more times before it died. It was a shock seeing them do it like that but hey this is the bush they don't have any fancy modern items to kill the oxes. Once it was killed we pulled it on a trailer and took it back to our camp. At the camp myself and our team helped the locals cut up the cow and take out its guts and such. My white clothes, the only clothes i didn't care about getting dirty, where full of blood by the time that was done a few hours later. After they cut it into a few large pieces that was only the start. For the next 3 days we spent helping the missionary cut up the meat into steaks, beef stew pieces, and billtong (South African Jerky). A few members of our team got cuts from the very sharp knifes we where using and a had infected fingers. After we where done eventhough the meat was for other people we where giving a piece of it..About 10 pounds of ribs...we ate all we could and it still lasted for 2 more meals!!! Although the meat was a bit tough it tasted great! The next day we went to a village to go pray with them but we soon found out that a girl (about 16 years old)had been in labor for 2 days and needed someone to take her to the clinic and so our plans of being there with them ended and we prayed for the girl then took her to the clinic. You never know what will happen in the bush or africa! On Friday we went to Namibia and went to visit these HUGE baobab trees that can be seen in planet earth and the kids movie madagascar. The ones we saw where about 2000 years old...yes 2000 years old. The trunk was about 10 feet wide and we could easily walk on its limbs! It was great to hang out there for the day and have a picnic. The following day Dries and myself had to go back to Namibia to get gas becauase most of botswana had a gas strike going on. As we where half way to the small town that had gas we saw a 10 foot black momba cross the road. As we slowed down it stood up and a third of its body was in the air! It was great seeing another black mamba! There was chaos at the gas station because that gas station was also out of gas the day before and this day the gas truck just showed up so there was a large line to get gas. That night we also watched the Super-14 Rugby championship game which had 2 south african teams. Dries was really into the stormers a team from his local home town and so we rooted for them and had a lot of fun watching rugby in the bush with him. I never have been to much into rugby but after being told of the rules and strategy it was a lot more interesting that it had been for me before. Sunday we relaxed most the day and Joy did a short sermon for the bushman at a local village. It was cool to sit around in a circle with bushman and have a worship time with them. We also prayed for the local "healer" or witch doctor. He was very open to what we had to say and was open to be prayed for. I never thought we would be praying for a witch doctor and with one that is as open as he was about christianity. Well we spent 4 more days in the bush but will talk about that in the next post.