Things that go bump in the night...

Friends we know are always in danger of hearing our bush stories.  I haven't seen any run for cover when we start in with telling of the many animal encounters we've had out here, but there is always tomorrow.   We learned last week, that everything that goes bump in the night out here, is not always an animal.

We have a maasai man who is our night guard.  I really like him, but I am not totally sure why we have him work here.  Tho its been explained to me that he can stay up all night and wake us up if any animals come around.  So, he comes about 6 in the evening, makes a fire, puts the dogs in the dog house and settles in...not sleeping!

So, we were very surprised  one evening at about 9 oclock when we heard him knocking on the door.  Jon answered the door, and the guard said,
"I really don't know what to do.  This lady just came in right out of the bush!  I think she's crazy!"
Well, was she EVER!!
No one goes out at night here unless its an emergency.  After dark, other things take to the bush, and its just not safe to be out.
We brought her into the house as it was starting to rain.  As soon as she walked in the door, she said, "I'm hungry, give me food."
Well, all I had really handy was beanie weanies and pita bread!  She didn't care.  She sat at the table and began to eat.
We had no idea who she was, or where she had come from. Neither had the guard.  So we asked the guard to go up and call Johnstone Twala, the manager of the agro project.  As we were waiting for him to come..
Would he ever get here!!!
...the crazy lady began to talk to others.  Not us. But people we could not see.  She would whisper, talk or just shake her head at them.  At one point she looked at me and said, in a whisper. "If you inject me, I will give you a goat!"  (maasai's like to have injections if they are sick).
She would at times stop eating, grab her head as if she were having an ice cream headache and shake her head in pain.

Jon would say to her, "Peace, be at peace.  Eat your food!" She would comply quietly for a while.
Jon poured some honey on her pita bread, and she informed him, "I am the owner of all honey."
She told us that someone in a village had given her tea in her gourd but it was gone, and she had lost a shoe in the bush someplace. (she took the other one off and put it on the table! ha )
After a while she began to tell us that she wanted to go home, to her husband, her three kids and her 47 cows.  So we tried to get her to talk about them.

Finally Johnstone came!! He walked into the house and she greeted him by name!  We were so relieved! He did know her.  She had wandered from home, about six miles away through thick heavy bush.  Johnstone said she really did NOT have a husband, kids or cows.  It was very, very sad.
He said he would talk her home in the Landcruiser, but when she got out to the vehicle, she was scared to get in. It took a lot of coaxing to get her in.
Later , Johnstone told us that when he got to her village, she really got angry that he had taken her there. She yelled at him asking why he didn't take her to her real home!

One of the reasons we don't go out at night.

Jon and I just don't know how she survived this long.  Not only do maasai have a fear of crazy people,  but they really don't take care of them well, if at all. But she looked okay.  She didn't look abused or malnourished.  We are just scared she may wander back into the bush and next time not find a homestead to go to. Pray with us that the people of her village will be diligent to keep her home, where she is safest.

These guys are known for just being mean and cranky!