This past Friday, Rod took the girls – and only the girls –
out to the bush to shoot guns and star gaze. Yes, it’s true. We left around 5
PM in the Landcruiser, Rod in the driver’s seat and ten girls packed in
everywhere else. Dinner stayed warm and somewhat untouched along the route –
though the smell of rice and curry made us all hungry. A hefty telescope, two
shotguns, and plastic mats were strapped onto the roof. We arrived out by this
incredible rock quarry just before dark. But, that didn’t stop Rod from loading
the shotgun and allowing all of us girls to take a couple of shots. Our target
was a large rock in the lake. Life-threatening? Maybe. But by some miracle, no
animals, people, or any other living species were injured in the process.
Meanwhile, Tricia began making tea and Jess got the meal
together. We had two pots, and therefore two groups (one around each pot), and
we ate communally. Aside from our choice to use spoons, we were close in form
to eating like Ivorians often eat (see photo below). We were in the bush, away
from the city, under a blanket of stars. Therefore, we relied on a few
flashlights to see our food and all the translucent bugs that felt like eating
curry too. But it turned out they’d stick to the rice and we ended up eating
them, accidentally. Fresh pineapple, peanuts, onions, bell peppers, and other
condiments trounced any bug flavor. We all ate our fill and then some.
Rod established the telescope on a more or less flat piece
of rock and set the scope first on Jupiter. We saw the beautiful planet with
two stripes and four of her moons. Then we moved up in the sky to Plateaus and
found a magnificent view of star upon star. To the naked eye Plateaus appeared
to be but a handful of stars. Through the telescope, however, there were tens
if not hundreds in view. Slowly, mister moon in all his fullness strolled into
the night sky. I could have stayed on that rock all night, questioning the
moon.
“The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim
His handiwork…night to night reveals knowledge…” Psalm 19:1
So yes, it was a lovely evening. All of us girls enjoyed
feeling a bit “dangerous” with guns (Jess’ new phrase is “I am dangerous!”). We
also felt completely small and humbled by the night sky.
On our way back, I rode on the roof of the Landcruiser with
Lina, Carina, and the telescope. We dodged so many branches and occasionally
got whipped by small ones that seemed to jump out of nowhere. But along the way
also we managed to dream up a future voyage around Europe, and then maybe the
U.S. too. Someday down the road, maybe I’ll get to travel around with my sweet
German friends.
Okay, the night didn’t end there. We arrived home at 10ish
and braced ourselves for a surprise. You see, a couple of weeks ago the girls
pranked the boys while they were out of town, and we knew they had been
planning revenge. (I don’t feel far removed from college!) When we walked into
the living room, the guys were hanging out as “normal”. We knew better than
that. We dropped off the bags and pots we carried in and walked down the girls’
corridor, only to see a giant snake body coming out of our bathroom. Gross!!
But it was completely still and it didn’t take us long to determine that the
thing was dead. We walked toward it with squeals and a bit of fright. Then the
boys came running down the hall and grabbed the snake’s body, only to swing it
back and forth at us. We all turned around and ran. It turned out to be a black
cobra, probably 2 meters in length. It had been found and killed on campus that
afternoon. (And since then, two others just like it have been killed – so
that’s three consecutive days in a row!)
We could deal with the dead snake. Our bedroom doors were
still locked (as we had left them) and we breathed a sigh of relief. The guys
couldn’t touch our rooms…. or could they? Carina opened our door and screamed.
It looked like a storm had gone through there. Our mattresses were stolen, our
bed frames stood on their ends, and clothes and other things were just
everywhere. The guys had outsmarted us and found a master key to all the rooms.
They had all kinds of fun disarranging everything. It was like a broken puzzle
that needed to be put back together. Even our shower curtains were missing, and
our toilet paper too! Oh my, what a disaster. As you can imagine, there were
plenty of laughs and screams. They guys had gotten us back – and they did a
good job.
That night we slept without our mattresses, but instead on
couch cushions. As Carina and I finally crawled into bed at about midnight in
our somewhat put-back-together room, we laughed about everything that happened
that night. We were wired. Since all the boys were asleep, we snuck down their
hallway and into their bathroom with the intention of getting them back. But
they guys had prepared to be repaid by hiding all of their toiletries in their
bedrooms. We ended up using an old thing of toothpaste to write, “watch out” on
their mirror. Nothing has happened yet in the area of payback, but we all know
that the prank war has officially begun…
