The Elephants That Refused to Move
Raw peanuts and a piece of cassava. These are all Jesse had
as he walked down the street eating. He was hungry. He was very late and knew
that he couldn’t sit down to eat what his mother had packed for him. Time was moving
very fast, and he knew he had no time to waste.
As Jesse walked along, he couldn’t help feeling nervous. He
should have left home much earlier, but the bad weather and rain made it difficult
because he didn’t have an umbrella. His mother made him wait until the rain
stopped before leaving the house.
But that was the least of his worries. Heavy rains in the
dry savannah brought a lot of challenges to the locals. There were flooded
murram roads and riverbanks flooded to the brim, making it difficult to cross.
Getting to work and school on time became a big challenge.
Jesse had spent most of the previous night anxious,
constantly waking up because of the heavy downpour. The iron sheets above his
head made so much noise he couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. To make it
worse, the roof was leaking right above his small bed. He had to wake his
mother up in the middle of the night to tell her, because his bed was getting
soiled.
Jesse’s father had left for another town to find work, and
his mother had been forced to take care of their three children alone. It had
been months since the last time Jesse saw his father, and he missed him a lot.
Every time he asked his mother when his father would come back, she would only tell
him to wait until the long holiday season. But this was so far away.
Jesse’s mother couldn’t fix the leaking roof at night. So
she told him to sleep on her bed, which she shared with Jesse’s nine-month-old sister.
He found it strange that his sister could sleep so soundly despite the noise
made by the raindrops on the iron sheet roof.
Early that morning, Jesse’s mother couldn’t cook any tea for
the family. All the firewood and charcoal she used was soaked in water. The
only food her two elder children could eat was the raw, uncooked peanuts and
leftover cassava. It wasn’t much, but they were grateful to have something to
eat. The nine-month-old was still being breastfed.
Jesse arrived at the riverbank and found a few other
students standing there waiting to cross the flooded river. The wooden
footbridge they used every day had been washed away. But a few parents from the
area had come together and rented a small boat to help the children cross the
river.
As Jesse approached the other children, he saw a man helping seven
of them enter the boat. They sat down with their school bags either on their
backs or over their shoulders and waited for the man to start rowing. This
wasn’t a big river compared to others in this province, and the kids often crossed
without any assistance during the dry season.
“Jesse, you have to line up here with us.” Remarked Paul,
one of Jesse’s school friends and neighbors.
Jesse moved where his friend was and joined the queue. There
were about ten children ahead of him, which meant that he would enter the boat
on the third round. Realizing this, Paul moved to the back of the line to stand
behind Jesse. This way they would cross the river together.
“Guess what happened last night?” Jesse said.
“What?” Paul asked.
“Our roof started leaking while I was sleeping, and my bed
got wet. I had to go and sleep on my parents bed with my mother and Tina.”
Jesse explained.
Paul reacted with a shocked face and wide-open mouth. “Oh,
I’m sorry. I wasn’t rained on while sleeping yesterday, but our kitchen was
flooded when we woke up. My father had to scoop all the water away and then my
mother cooked our breakfast outside. It was very cold.” He said.
As they were speaking, a few more children arrived, some
with their parents in hand. They watched as the boat moved along the river to
the other side. A small group of people stood there, and they helped get all of
the children off the boat onto the land.
The man on the boat motioned to two women on the riverbank
to enter the boat, then he turned it around and started rowing back to the
other side. The children were anxiously waiting for him.
As soon as the boat arrived, where Jesse and the other kids
stood, seven students entered the boat and the whole process started again. Jesse,
Paul, and a few other students would be carried on the third round. They waited
patiently for their turn.
Soon, the boat was back again, and the two boys were among
the first to get on board. At this point they were very late for school. As
soon as the boat stopped on the other side, they all got out and quickly
started walking to school.
They saw the other group of kids ahead of them and hurriedly
caught up with them. Jesse and Paul’s group was made up of older children, and
they told the other group of smaller kids to walk faster, which they did.
Although this side of the river had also experienced a lot
of rain, the soil was mostly sand, so it wasn’t as muddy as the other side. The
kids were able to pick up speed and move fast, saving valuable time in the
process.
However, a few minutes in, the kids came to a complete stop.
In front of them stood a herd of elephants grazing. Among them was a small
calf, struggling to follow its mother around. The kids had been taught by their
parents and teachers to be wary of elephants with calves.
Not knowing what to do, the smaller kids started crying, and
a few of them started running back towards the river. One of the older ones
turned around and motioned for them to keep quiet and stand still. But two of
the small kids continued running away while crying.
Pascal, who was a year older than Jesse and Paul, was in
grade eight and a class prefect. He took up his leadership role and said, “The four
of you should hold the hand of one kid each and walk across that side, far away
from the elephants.” He pointed to an area with an old track.
“Pick the kids who are calm and not running. The rest of us
will get the ones who ran away scared.” He continued.
Feeling brave, Jesse and Paul stayed behind with Pascal as the
other four older kids went and took the hands of four little kids and started
walking with them around the herd of elephants. Fear was eminent on the faces
of the kids, but they moved to the side away from the animals, feeling safe in
the hands of the older children.
Once these kids had walked past the elephants and got back
to the road, Jesse and his team turned towards the crying children. They walked
towards them and reassured them that nothing bad would happen.
“You have to stop crying!” Jesse said. “Elephants don’t like
crying children, and if you don’t stop, they will come after us. You don’t want
that to happen, do you?”
“No!” The little kids said in unison.
“Okay. Then come with us. We will protect you, and nothing
bad will happen. Trust us.” Jesse assured them.
Paul, Pascal, and Jesse each took hold on a kid’s hand and
started walking around the elephants, using the same route the other kids had
used. However, halfway there, the young calf started jumping around. It left
the herd and headed towards the kids.
Startled, the little kids started running again. But the
three older ones held their hands tightly and didn’t let go.
“Don’t run! You’ll make the big elephants come after us.”
Jesse said.
The small group of kids stood still. They watched the calf
run around. But as soon as the calf saw them, it turned around and went back to
the herd. However, one of the big elephants turned its head and saw the kids. It
looked at them for a few seconds, then started walking towards them.
“Okay, let’s get going!” Pascal said.
“Which direction?” Paul asked.
“This way,” Jesse answered as he started walking in the
opposite direction.
“Why are we going that side?” Paul asked.
“Because the elephant won’t track our scent. The wind is
blowing in the other direction.” Jesse replied.
Jesse led the kids around the elephants through a series of
bushes. When they got to the other side, they turned back and noticed that the
elephant had stopped following them. Happy, they continued moving in the same
direction until they caught up with the first group of kids who had went ahead
of them.
“Phew, that was close!” Jesse said.
“Not so fast.” One of the other kids said. “Look at that elephant!”
They followed the kid’s finger to see what he was pointing
at. A lone elephant stood a distance. Why was he alone? Why wasn’t he grazing
with the other herd?
Unknown to the kids, this lone ranger had left the herd due
to aggression and conflicts with the older males. He was mature enough to fend
for himself. However, he would pose a threat to the kids and any humans on his
path.
The kids decided to use the same strategy they did early. They
moved as a group to the right side of the elephant. But the animal turned and
started walking towards them. This startled the kids who stood still for a
minute. When the elephant didn’t make any further move, they agreed to continue
walking.
However, the elephant started moving too. The kids were
starting to get angry, and Jesse could sense fear creeping in the group. They
stopped walking, and the elephant also stopped.
“Let’s move faster and climb over those rocks. I don’t think
the elephant will follow us.” Jesse suggested.
The kids agreed to the idea and walked very quickly towards
the rocks. Since they were used to climbing rocks while grazing their family’s
cattle, this was an easy task for them.
After that, they went around a few large bushes and joined
the road they had left earlier because of the animals. They looked back but
didn’t see the elephant.
“I think we are safe now,” Pascal said.
“Yes, that worked.” Jesse agreed. “Let’s keep walking
quickly because we are very late for school. I’m sure we’ll find the head
teacher standing at the gate waiting for latecomers.”
The mention of the head teacher sent shivers around the
group. He was a very tough man. None of the students would dread coming face-to-face with him. And so the kids increased their pace, chatting and laughing at
the scary event they had just experienced.
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