by The Schmooze

Created on: July 30, 2008

Straight after high school, I joined a certain Christian Youth Group for a one year discipleship program. My buddies and I were really psyched up about the possibilities of meeting some nice Christian ladies, with whom we shared similar values. I know what you're thinking. Wrong motive for joining a Youth Group! But that wasn't the sole reason - we were first and foremost, Christians willing to be taught and discipled in the ways of the good book, the Bible! Truth be told, only one of us managed to walk away with a girlfriend. The rest of us left the youth group as single as we had entered it. But that is a story for another day.

As part of our bonding routines in the group, we went for a one week camp at a place called Hippo Camp in Kenya. We never missed camps they were the perfect setting to pour your heart out to the person you'd been dying for. Why? Because during camps, everyone let their guard down.

Immediately we arrived at Hippo Camp, the ranger there warned as against straying in the night, as there was the real danger of coming face to face with buffaloes. Now, only two things in this world scare me: gun-wielding robbers and wild animals. I therefore wasn't gonna take the ranger's advice fore granted.

One afternoon, we went for a swim at a distant river. We were having so much fun that we hardly noticed the sunset. By the time we were heading back to camp, we could hardly see a thing.

I had the biggest body of the lot and naturally, I led from the front. I wasn't one to pass up the opportunity to influence the ladies, no matter how trivial. All the while, I was reassuring everyone that with me at the front, they had nothing to worry about. They'd found a hero!

We were some 500m from our campsite when I heard some funny noises. I'm a big fan of National Geographic, so I know a Buffalo when I hear it. I cursed our luck. A couple of strides forward and I noticed three pairs of eyes. I froze. I tried to play it calm but it was evident I was quite uncomfortable. What I would do next would either make or break me. I played the two possible scenarios in my mind: be brave and end up in hospital (or the mortuary) or take off and be branded a coward. I decided that my reputation was of little value when compared with my life.

My feet took over. I only stopped when I was at what I deemed to be a safe distance away from the buffaloes. A couple of my friends were there with me. You can imagine the look on our faces as we saw the ladies stroll past the buffaloes and into the camp. Was that egg we had all over our faces? It certainly felt that way. But I wasn't convinced. Maybe the buffaloes were gender sensitive. I had to call the ranger to come and accompany us into the campsite.

When we got there, the ladies were laughing their hearts out and labeled us cowards. At that moment, I prayed for a lion to show up and devour me alive. I couldn't take it.

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