Mikumi

After much internal debate, I came to the conclusion to post a short story, in relation to the multitude of events that occurred the weekend of Mikumi.

Once upon a time (about two weeks ago), 47 Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) went to a wonderful place called Mikumi National Park.  It was legend that once you go to Mikumi, strange things happen and you will never be the same.  [Actually, that's not entirely true, but interesting things do always happen at Mikumi, and this year's trip was not an exception.]  Year after year, previous PCTs will fall in the same trap and seize the opportunity of Mikumi to...let's just say...be very free.  Indeed, it was the first time all of us were able to truly feel like ourselves since we have been in country and been able to wear jeans (without being professionally and culturally inappropriate)!  Needless to say, I was just as thrilled to get to wear jeans instead of a skirt again as I was thrilled to get to go on a legitimate African safari!  :D

In the morn of our trip ["safari" in Kiswahili], CBTs from far and wide congregated at our usual rendezvous point at CCT, and boarded two buses that would take us on our 2-3 hour voyage to Mikumi.  Along the way, I sat in the back row with three other gentleman, who had too much liquid to drink and had to take a premature leak into plastic flasks.  Now, do not worry, I made sure to switch with another passenger who also needed to relieve themselves and tried to give the males their privacy, while staying as far away from them as possible.  That was exciting in itself, but the best part came when casual wagers were taken as to which animals we would feast our eyes upon first.  I tried my luck with gazelles, and lo and behold, was I right!  Our caravan encountered a ridiculous number of gazelles and giraffes throughout the day, as well as some zebras, baboons, and glimpses of a few elephants.

Of all the animals that we encountered, the hippopotamus was my favorite, mainly because we were able to get out of our buses and walk out to take photographs of them at the Hippo Pool.  My other favorite portion of the safari was the ginormous baobab tree!  My monkey-like tendencies broke free and I climbed the tree up to one of the higher branches and soaked in the African vista.  It was breathtaking, and although I wanted to see a lion ["simba" in Kiswahili], it was worth the trip just to get to climb in the tree and see the animals up close.

After we got back to Genesis and had dinner out by the main road, the shenanigans began.  Music and spirits may have played principal roles in the birthday celebrations of Kristine, but the main event was yet to occur. Once the tomfoolery started to wade and the night sky was illuminated only by the stars, and after I had very unexpected, in-depth conversations with two persons, I was able to get so shut eye....or so I thought....

Just as I was slipping into my slumber while tucking in my mosquito net, I hear two people, one male and one female running into the room and the male shouting for the female to go shower immediately, "Go! Go in the shower now! Oh my God, it smells so bad!"  The male ran outside of our room and started to gag and kept shouting and saying that he needed to go shower to get the smell off.  I was thoroughly perplexed and more than a little exhausted when the smell hit me like a wall.  I took a good whiff of it before I almost started to gag myself, and as I got out of my net and bed to go check on the gagging male outside, I hear a voice from the restroom saying, "Belle, I need help! I don't know what to do...it just *gag* it just smells SO BAD!"

**Warning: If you have a weak stomach, do not continue reading!!**

Here's what happened.  The girl, who shall not be named for obvious reasons, was talking to the boy and while they were walking in the dark - because there are practically no lights except for around where the rooms are - and away from the rest of the group, the girl's foot is snagged on a stack of bamboo sticks, and she stumbles into a very large, very deep sewage drain pit latrine.  I thought bats flying up and around me in a pit latrine in Panama was bad...this is MUCH MUCH worse.  She was literally nose deep in liquefied excrement.  The boy thought she was terrified of drowning because she was not able to get out of the pit, but then he realized the magnitude of the terror as he grabbed her hand, pulled her out, and the stench reached his nostrils.  He got only a small spot on his shorts, but she was covered from below the nose, down.  While screaming for him to help her after she fell in, she may have gotten some of it in her mouth.  I still cringe at it, and just writing about this now brings back that horrid, putrid smell.

After a couple hours of me helping her emotionally, psychologically, and physically cleanse herself and our room as much as possible of the stench, she was able to relay to me (and a few others) what had happened and the boy and I were able to clear our belongings out of the room and air the room out.  I had to sleep in a separate room that night, and it amazes me that the three of us were able to keep all of our food and everything down.  The next morning, the news spread like wildfire, and everyone at some point, took a tour to the scene of the crime before we left Mikumi to go back to our non-Mikumi lives.

To this day, the three of us (the girl, the boy, and myself) are still sensitive to the smell, which is the absolute worse smell I have ever had the horrifying privilege to encounter.  As for the rest of the group, not a single person wasn't touched in some way, shape, or form by the magic of Mikumi...and so the legend is true, you will never be the same once you go to Mikumi.


**Disclaimer: generalizations of the group and emotions may have been exaggerated slightly to make the storytelling of this tale more interesting, but the events that occurred are concrete and did indeed happen.