I still remember the moment I looked into a rhinos eyes, driving through South African bush for the first time. There are some rarities that occur when you travel, single moments where your world is altered in front of you. I swear if you try hard enough, you can capture it. In those moments, the world teeters and you can live in it forever. This stew has a little bit of that magic, the ability to take me back to cold nights under the Southern Cross… listening to hyenas call in the distance.
I Bless The Rains Down In Africa
Getting to Africa was no easy task. I was finishing up my first year of veterinary technician school, and starting to apply to internships. My heart was in only one place. I was being beckoned like Toto was singing to me personally. It was on the other side of the world, calling me somewhere I had never been…Africa. I explained my plan to go to Africa and save rhinos to my program director… as I say it out loud now I laugh at the ridiculousness of that statement. I got a serious talking to about life, and asked if it was the most “plausible” career path. Spoiler alert, I trusted my calling and went to Africa despite what anyone said. It paid off and my future self would end up working with a herd of 54 critically endangered rhinos… but more on that later. You see, I truly believe that your heart knows the path, and what a self betrayal to let the voices around you confuse that.
Africa Belongs to the Animals
South Africa belongs to the animals, and I belong to them. The first night we slept outside in the bush, while making a pot of West African Peanut Stew over a bubbling fire. We were surrounded by the 14 calls of wild hyenas, and I giddily swore to myself I would never leave. We took turns staying awake, to scan the dark void for predators. A red eye here… two white eyes there. That night I lay zipped up in my sub zero bag with no roof over my head, staring at the southern cross twinkling above me. I was in another world, a world I had conjured up. I was in a world that I only read about in books and seen on tv screens. Morning came, as I mixed as instant coffee next to the fire… maybe this is where my fondness of instant coffee comes from. Yes, I know, ew instant coffee… but instant coffee reminds me of coming face to face with my greatest love.
Meeting the Rhino
Meeting a rhino for the first time, felt like star crossed lovers at the end of a novel. I saw their whole story unfold in silence, in small glances from their eyes in between grazes of grass filled mouths. I imagined poachers looking into those eyes and taking the life away… every 22 hours. Echoes of bush locals still ring in my mind, “It’s only a matter of time,” they say softly while starring at the species we were there to protect. That night I lay staring at the sky contemplating all the ways one person could save a rhino, and I vowed to never stop talking about them. Never stop talking about being on the precipice of losing one of the universes most rare and majestic creatures. Never stop talking, until we undo what we have done.
This stew reminds me of the promises I made on the other side of the world. This stew, more than anything, is a gently reminder of how big the world is and how small my problems are.
