If you
think this is going to be all about animals, you would be wrong but I will start
and end with some critter tales.
A plague of Egyptian proportion
The Bible says in Exodus 10:14, “And the locusts went up over all the land of
Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no
such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.” There will not be
locusts as bad as Egypt had every again, but grasshoppers! For almost two weeks,
you could not walk without the ground jumping and leaping around you as the
grasshoppers tried to keep from being smashed! They were everywhere, eating
everything! The outside walls of the house was covered with grasshoppers and I
do not even want to mention the veranda! I do not know how many I trod under
foot, but I prefer to do it with shoes on my feet!
Devils
There
is a time and season for everything under the sun, including devil parading!
There are numerous secret societies in Sierra Leone and when they are in the
right mood they pull out their devil costume and parade through town. On January
1st returning to Baomahun from Freetown I saw many devils, but never
got to see one up close.
But
then how fortunate could I be, I got an up close encounter with not just one but
two devils right here in Baomahun! (I am not touched in the head, it just does
not take much to make my day!)
My
encounter started while I was playing goalie in a soccer game with some kids. In
the course of the soccer game I was suddenly surrounded by a mob of kids yelling
“Debil! Debil!” It took me a minute to realize they were saying Devil and looked
in the direction they were pointing; I saw a parade of society women with two
devils. My first thought of the devil costumes on this warm afternoon about 3
o’clock was, “that looks hot.” (Um just realized that kind of fits) The kids in
an attempt to scare me tell me that the devils are coming to get me. While I
highly doubted it, I did decide that I would get out of the path the devils and
their entourage obviously wanted to walk down. I stood to the side and watched
them pass. I regretted not having a camera, but a couple days later from the
secrecy of the Bunkhouse, I was able to get a picture of a devil shindig that
was taking place down the hill. The picture below is from that devil viewing!
Prisoner transport
Headed out for Bo early one Monday morning with Bro. Stephen, in the back
of the truck already was Paul, the son of a Bible School Student and Bro. David
Johnny. We come to a stop at the police checkpoint in Mongeri and we wait. And
we wait, and wait and did I mention wait? This is not typical, and there are 4-5
police officers wandering around, so what is going on? Finally, the Chief
Officer comes over and says he needs help. Ok, explain. They have a prisoner
that needs to get to Bo, could we take him. Sure, but hurry up. After more time
wasted than was needed, we got underway to Bo, with two police officers and one
prisoner. In the course of the ride to Bo, we learn that the man is an attempted
murderer and arsonist! Seems that this man, I don’t know his name so for sake of
clarity will refer to him as Man A, Man A’s wife had been hanging out with Man
B. Man A did not like that so he purchased petrol and proceeded to the house of
Man B, where the wife was also located at the time, and set it on fire. Man A
succeeded in burning down 2 houses, but thankfully no one was hurt. You never know what to expect around here!!
Snake
Any of
you who know me, know that I do not like snakes. I have no interest in looking
at them, being anywhere near them etc. So how I managed to be roped into being
the photographer for the latest cobra killing, I have not the slightest clue.
While the Holt’s and the pups risked life and limb to rid Sierra Leone of one
more deadly 5 foot cobra, I almost as bravely remained behind the 4 foot high
wall of the veranda and wished them well. Everyone has their part to play, when
it comes to snakes mine part is to be far, far away!
From Sierra Leone,
Aimee
Philippians 1:20
According to my earnest expectation and my hope,
that in
nothing I shall be ashamed,
but that with all boldness, as always,
so now
also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life, or by
death.
