Believe it or not, the other day I got to expirience fighting a brush fire, South African style.
While sitting through an evening of debrief, we were told that there was a fire in the game park and that they needed a few people to come help with the supression efforts. So I went down with the boys and got to expirience a new way of fighting fire.
First of all, in South Africa, anyone can fight a fire. There were 12 year old boys, to the age of about 60 out there working to save their homes. When we arrived they had already started a backburn. Suprisingly, in Africa, no tools are needed or necessary. There are no helicopters, no tankers, and no engines. The only tool needed is to simply cut a branch off of a tree, and start wacking it at the fire, smothering it out. It was a very interesting technique, but suprisingly it worked really well, and in a couple hours the fire was contained.
Tomorrow we leave for Thailand. I cant think of a better way for me of saying farewell to Africa!
