Dan vs. Wild

You find yourself in Africa with three locals in the deep forest. Your road is the one less traveled. Your truck is heading uphill on a sudden incline, the dirt road cracked all the way up. Without warning your truck starts to slide down. The driver frantically fights to keep the truck under control, but it’s not use. Now you and your truck are stuck at the bottom. No civilization in sight and you haven’t passed another car in what seems like ages. Adrenaline pounding and daylight fading. Would you know what to do to survive?

Well this is exactly the situation I found myself in yesterday my friends. And I just want to extend my official thanks to Bear Grylls for my British-Special-Service-quality survival training. As soon as we knew that the truck would be of no use to us my many years of watching the Discovery Channel and Man vs. Wild kicked in to possibly save my life.

Ok, so maybe I’m exaggerating a tad. But my mind did go instinctively into survival mode, even though the village we were heading to was a 10 minute walk from where the truck failed us (and by the time we were done at the village the truck was up there waiting for us). But I didn’t know that at the time. For all I knew this was the start of a very long battle for our survival.

In all seriousness though, it has been an incredible two days assisting the catechists in their pastoral works. The villages we travel to are hours into the forest and at times it does feel like we might not make it out easily. This is especially due to the most narrow, hand-crafted bridges you have ever seen. Some are literally logs thrown across a stream. And hearing these creak and crack as we drive over them is a pretty nerve-racking experience every time.

It has definitely been a highlight of my experience so far though. For most people here the distance and overall forested nature of these trips might just be a nuisance, but for me each trip has been an adventure of a lifetime. I guess it’s the years of the Discovery Channel coming out of me.

And the work we do at these outposts is very rewarding, as well. The first time I was with Fr. George, so he said Mass and asked me to give a small reflection. Today it was just the translator and I, and I gave my reflection again (a better quality one though). Both reflections were on the Trinity. So now I would like to extend another thanks to Fr. Santos and his Medieval Philosophy class for getting me through these reflections.

At the end of today’s service there was an announcement that a child died last night after months of sickness. They then asked me (as the guest/seminarian I guess) to say a prayer over the young couple mourning. It was again another humbling and powerful experience for me. Then they told me that this is my village now as well, and they hope that I come back. And even if I go back to America I can say that I am from this village.

Praise the Lord for the opportunity I have been given with these amazing people. But now I am afraid I must depart in order to get ready for my next adventure into the wild!

-Dan
written 06/22/11