Limitless

5/17

To forewarn you, we cut up an elephant. I talk about it here. There’s blood involved and I get stuffed into the carcass. Yes, you read that right.

We started our day with rounds and planned a trip to town afterwards at 11 am. We had lunch at a pub and after throwing Hamish’s shirt and Olly’s flip-flops into the pool at the pub, I was dragged, kicking and shouting to be put down after a feeble attempt to run away, and thrown into the pool as well. A few curious glances were solicited from some locals as I walked around drench from head to toe.

During afternoon rounds we got a call than an elephant was taken down. It was a hunter. In an ironic and sick twist, the hunter, who probably paid close to 400,000 rands to shoot the elephant, was not doing a terrible thing. Truth is elephants are over-populated in Kruger and knock down too many trees. No one wants to see such an awesome animal go down, but there’s that bigger picture again. The money the hunter paid goes toward conservation efforts and the meat (where we will come in) is fed to the animals back at the rehab.

Everyone hurriedly grabbed headlamps, jackets and work clothes that would eventually be drenched in dark red, sticky blood. It was a 2 ½  hour drive, but the ride is fun and everyone is light-hearted and laughing with Olly dj-ing. It’s close to 7 pm when we arrive and night is falling fast. In the distance I see what looks to be a massive grey boulder. My heart is racing when I realize, wrong, it’s the partially skinned elephant. I help with shining lights as the other students start carrying the still warm, slippery meat to the back of the buckies (the tough as nails pick-up trucks we use).

The night was clear with a big, full moon. The serenity of the night was strangely out of place with the chainsaw butchering the elephant. We worked late into the night with people becoming bloodier and bloodier. Some, in a sort of primitive ritual, smear the steaming red war paint across their cheeks like wild warriors ready for battle.

I managed to stay fairly clean up to this point. Why I thought I was going to stay that way was ridiculous. Ale, a sweet girl of 23 from Venezuela, shouted to Cody (a ranger my age and quite cute might I add) that I was too clean. So all too familiar I find my self being picked up by Cody and two other rangers, kicking and shouting to be put down, and stuffed into the elephant. I came out….a lot less clean. Somehow the episode was repeated, probably because I continued to dish out what I got.

The elephant is thankfully almost finished when we see eyes caught in the spotlights. Hyenas. The raw flesh has drawn them in. The scene has now turned eerie as we catch glimpses of their eyes before they disappear. The moon high up in the heavens now casts a mysterious sheen on the landscape. The last of the elephant is thrown into the bucky and everyone is on the road.

From this whole ordeal I befriended one of the greenmen, Sam. Throughout the night he taught me a few words in his native tongue, each time repeating what I thought he said through the chatter around us. He tried his best to keep me from being thrown into the elephant a third time. The rangers slump away as he tells them to leave me be. I was safe for the time being.

Leaving Kruger we were halted by a very large lion lying in the middle of the road. I was slightly concerned seeing we had three buckies filled with fresh meat. Finally he slunk off and we were on our way home again. The last things we had to do were clean the buckies then ourselves. It was a long night. 4 am and 2 ½ hours before we wake up to start rounds. The bush babies Habibi and Chris are running about merrily. They’re nocturnal and probably wondering what we are doing up. I love them though, they provide lots of entertainment; I even kill bugs for them. I’m sure I’ll be retelling again and again this strange and gruesome tale about the night of the elephant.