The benefit of the doubt

A good friend has impacted our lives forever. We won’t mention any names (Luke Safford!!!) but he introduced my husband to bird-watching. Things will never be the same. Case in point? He’s now documented 150+ species since he started 2 months ago. Granted, this is Malawi, one of the best bird-watching places in the region. But still, I assure you 150 species represents many an hour spent with binoculars out in the fields, or hunched over the “Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa” book which I bought him in a moment of weakness! To his credit, he usually takes at least 1 kid out with him. He’s bound and determined to turn them into bird-watchers too, though it’s yet to take.

But this is all just in introduction. See, the real story is that we took a volunteer team to Zambia last month so that they could safari in the game park there. We camped (in tents) at a wonderful site, despite a friend questioning the wisdom of camping near a game preserve in Africa (something about lions and leopards, I don’t know). Anyway, we camped. And the first day, the kids wanted to go to the pool so we all headed out. Only I forgot our towels in the tent, so Chad offered to go back and bring them to us. 45 minutes later, the kids’ lips were blue and I was juggling 4 crying kids with no towels, mentally cursing my no-good-bird-watching husband who had no doubt been distracted by a must-see species! I managed to get all 4 kids back to the campgrounds, ready to give Chad a piece of my mind. “What were you doing?” I demanded, fully expecting his familiar sheepish grin.

He knows me well, and he knew exactly what I thought he had been doing. So I detected a small bit of pleasure in his voice as he told me his story. A large, bull elephant had come through camp and decided it didn’t like him much. He ran and hid behind the car, and then had to circle the car back and forth to avoid it as it came looking for him. As he tired of this game, he flapped a towel at the elephant’s general direction, “like a matador with a bull” (he later admitted it might not have been the wisest move!) and the elephant turned to run away. But his foot caught on the tent stake, and that was the straw that broke the elephant’s back. He backed up and trampled the tent into smithereens before finally running away! Thanks be to God, he missed the luggage and no one was IN the now-flat tent! But Chad had to repair it as best he could, and move us under a shelter to reduce the risk of a repeat trampling. And all the while, I was irritated at him for deserting his family to a cold swimming pool!

So remember this, the next time you are tempted to assume the worst of your husband. He could be playing hide-and-seek with an angry elephant. Or, then again, he could be bird-watching!!! It's really a 50-50, isn't it?

Comments

  1. Oh My Miriam! I have the same thoughts about my bird-watching husband from time-to-time, although not usually in relation to elephants. If you make it back to Central OH, Tom and Chad could bird together. :-)

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  2. Sure, Chad. Sounds way too much like a Pumpelly story to me. But, it's a good one.

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