A 1-800-Dial-A-Brother Moment at Nahumba

This post is for my brothers :)

Adventures happen in real life. It was Sunday morning, and Heather and I were standing in the kitchen, dressed and ready for the morning service in half an hour.

We had just finished taking care of some business with the deacon when our farm manager, Ba Mudenda came to the door, “We are asking if you can use your vehicle to come pull a dead animal from the corral for us?”

Heather met me in the hall and held out the keys. “This is all yours. You’re the one from the farm!” We laughed some nervous giggles and exchanged our this-is-bound-to-be-interesting looks as we hopped in the Isuzu and headed for the corral just behind the garage.

Yes, I grew up on a farm, but no, I’d never hauled a few hundred kilo dead cow. It was one of those 1-800-Dial-A-Brother moments in my life… “Hi, it’s Julie. So, um, I need to pull a dead cow out of approximately twelve inch deep muck. It’s sort of sunk in, as it’s been there a while. My truck is only two-wheel drive, but it’s a manual. My concern is how to have enough pulling power once the rope is tight and the engine starts lugging. When do I give the throttle? I’m thinking if I don’t do it right, I’ll kill the engine… and the cow won’t budge. Also, they want me to turn and pull. I’m thinking I just need to pull straight or the truck won’t keep up…”

But, I couldn't call my brother. This one was on me.

We rolled up and I reversed toward the coral. Ba Mudenda and a few other guys started tying the rope to the dead animal while the remaining herd meandered around. The cow looked like a huge rock next to a small tree in the mucky coral. I was strategizing which direction to pull and how I’d maneuver the vehicle. Heather and I were both wishing we had grabbed a camera. A small crowd was gathering to watch the excitement.

Let me just tell you that navigating a vehicle under instructions from those who have never driven a vehicle can be interesting…

"Where do you want me to go?"

"Oh, just straight. Then you can turn. You can just pull it out and then we’ll dig a ditch for it…"

OK. Super clear. Of course.

Pull #1 went like this:

Julie puts Isuzu in 1^st gear and takes off (not wanting to lug the engine to the point of stalling)… Julie was way too ambitious and the rope quickly snapped. Whoops.

Somewhere around pull #3 I got the cow out of the muck. “Now,” said Ba Mudenda, “just pull it out a bit and we will take care of it.”

Have I ever mentioned that Tonga directions can be interesting, because they are so ambiguous-?

I revved the engine and started pulling that cow. I pulled and pulled and pulled. Eventually the guys said I could stop, so I did—just before a small rise in the path (note: this was not a road). Soon after I stopped, they wanted me to pull again. It’s one thing to pull a dead cow once the vehicle is moving; it’s another thing to start pulling a dead cow when you’re on a slight incline, off-road, with a two-wheel drive vehicle.

I put the Isuzu in first gear. The engine coughed, the vehicle slid sideways, and the wheels spun. The cow didn't move. Not a bit.

I tried again. I repositioned. I tried again.

I surveyed the area, asked for clarity on where I was to pull this hunk of animal, put the diff lock on, and tried pulling again. Meanwhile, the fellows re-adjusted the rope, tying it to the cow’s legs instead of around its neck.

As I let the clutch out, the engine pulled, I gave it throttle, and we took off, hauling that cow out in the middle of a field of 6 foot tall grass.

We left him there with the guys, and drove the vehicle back to the yard. Then, Heather and I grabbed our Bibles and walked to church. We weren't even late!

During lunch, I watched one of the fellows pushing the cow head by in a wheel barrow, and in the afternoon, a small truck came from town and left looking squatty and full.

I was just thinking… is there an evening this week that would work for you to come for dinner? Maybe something American—like hamburgers?! You know, that’s one of the great parts of life on a farm, all the fresh, natural, home-grown food…

*sorry- no picture. I wanted to at least post something after several days of silence due to our busy programme and lack of internet.*