Crunch, Christian held the stick and nudged the tarp. Something shuffled underneath the black covering. Wack, again the stick hit the tarp. Another scurry. “It’s probably a squirrel”, and “It’s defiantly alive”, was whispered back and forth from the onlookers. From one side of the pond, working its way to the other, something scurried trying to dodge the painful hits. Suddenly, a black and white streak emerged from beneath the crinkling sheet.
The morning started off as any other morning. Toast and oatmeal for breakfast, gathering tools for ministry, and filling up our water bottles. We had been doing manual labor on the wall and now the fish pond for the last few weeks. The fish pond required us cutting grass, uprooting weeds taller then myself, trimming trees, and trying to fix the tarp that held the remaining water of the fish pond. Today we had a little extra help. Christian from team Covenant had offered his services. So the morning began, for the first hour and a half we trimmed trees, cut grass, and almost lost Elena and I into the pond. That incident took a very slow morning, where it felt like the morning would never end, and completely flipped it.
For the last few days leading up to this day we had seen movement under the tarp yet completely ignored it thinking it was the wind. Today, there was no wind, and there was still movement. Odd, we thought, let’s poke it with a stick. So Christian grabbed a long stick and started to poke and prod the area of the tarp we saw movement last.
Crunch, Christian held the stick and nudged the tarp. Something shuffled underneath the black covering. Wack, again the stick hit the tarp. Another scurry. “It’s probably a squirrel”, and “It’s defiantly alive”, was whispered back and forth from the onlookers. From one side of the pond, working its way to the other, something scurried trying to dodge the painful hits. Suddenly, a black and white streak emerged from beneath the crinkling sheet.
Screams of terror, confusion, and excitement echoed over the fish pond. First the head popped out and I thought surely it’s just a tiny squirrel. Then some of the torso and I thought surely it’s just a harmless rabbit. Then a fully grown four and a half foot honey badger bolted towards the fence. Our screams echoed through the air and our eyes nearly popped out of our heads as it got entangled for a split second in the fence and continued to run for its life.
One of the guards on our compound started to run after it with a stick. We were all still screaming and confused but also ran after it. The adrenaline was pumping and our conversations meshed together in a symphony of excitement. “What if there’s another one”, “What was it”, “How long had it been there”? Questions arose and but we thought the adrenaline rush was over as we headed back to the fish pond to finish up our morning ministry.
Continuing to cut grass and trim trees we wondered if there might just be another creature lurking within the tarp home. So again we smacked the tarp with a stick and again there was movement. Our screams alerted many of the locals and within seconds the fish pond was swarmed. The locals then jumped into action, beating the tarp wherever there was movement. To be honest it was a pretty brutal and sad sight to see the life beat out of an animal.
Later we learned that these badgers had been eating the fish that used to be in the fish pond and the chickens that were in the coop directly behind the fish pond. These badgers were not liked what so ever. Once all movement had ceased the locals pulled back the tarp and dragged the other badger out. This one was only about three and a half feet. Sadly, it was still breathing and the locals kind of just let it lay there in agony until it stopped breathing. I realized even more so in that moment that different cultures and communities do things very differently then what I, as an American citizen, would deem as humane and normal.
So, what started out as “normal ministry” on a Friday morning, turned out to be one of my biggest adrenaline rushes on the race thus far. Then again, is any morning on the race a normal morning? I’d have to say no because every day, running this race with Jesus, is a new experience and a different learning opportunity. Honestly, it’s just another story to add to the hopefully many other stories to come.
