Page 16 of Marriage (Red, White &) Blues

“Is that a—?”Holywownoway. We watched a lion launch at a wildebeest, leaping onto the poor creature’s back and digging those massive claws into its hind quarters before sinking his razor-sharp teeth in to tear it apart. It broke my heart for the wildebeest, but I couldn’t turn away if I’d wanted to. When in my life would I ever get to see this again?

Moses kept the cruiser moving so as not to disturb the lion’s meal.

We were probably three hours from the lodge when we came across something I really never expected to see. A group of traditionally dressed men—hunters—chasing down a, well, it looked like an incredibly large warthog. Growing up as a city girl in the good old US of A, I had no idea that warthogs ran so fast and were so wily.

“Watch,” Moses ordered calmly this time, and I did, raptly. It took everything those men had to corner that beast and kill him with their spears. And that didn’t happen before one of the men, a younger man, maybe late teens, found himself on the wrong end of those tusks. It sliced his leg wide, blood just oozing like a battlefield wound.

“Where do they live?” I asked. “Will they be able to get him home on time?”

“I don’t know where they’ve set camp,” Moses answered. “They’re some of the area’s semi-nomadic people.”

“We have to help him. Will they let us help him?” I asked. Moses had a massive first aid kit in the car with us. He apparently agreed because he turned off the engine and opened the door. Blake grabbed the kit from the back then the three of us got out.

“He needs help,” Moses said to the men and they responded in a flurry of words some in English and some I didn’t understand. “Please let us help him.”

The young man writhed on the ground. Sweat beaded along his forehead. The leader of the hunting party agreed, letting us get close. Blake held him down while Moses performed the actual triage, which left me by the poor man’s head. I laid it in my lap and talked to him.

“Look at me, okay?” I said and he moved his eyes to me. “I know it hurts.” He reached up to grab one of my hands, squeezing it until the circulation went out of it. “Do you know Moses here?” I asked and the man shook his head. “Well, he’s awesome. He’ll get you fixed up so we can get you home.”

Right then, Moses did something that shot pain through the poor kid and he squeezed my hand even tighter if that were possible. Blake used his whole upper body to keep our patient still and Blake held some power in those arms, back, and chest.

Finally, Moses finished, wrapping the wound in a sterile bandage. “Let us take him home. He cannot walk with that injury.” All his fellow hunters agreed and the group of us helped him into the Land Cruiser. “One of you should come with us,” Moses said next. “To show us the way.”

Several of the men got down to the business of tying the dead hog to poles or something so they could carry it home while a fellow hunter joined us in the car. He pointed us in the direction of their camp and then introduced himself as “Leboo.”

“It’s good to meet you,” I said. “I’m Gloria.”

“I’m Blake.”

“Moses,” Moses said. Of the five of us in the car, four were covered in blood, and I wasn’t one of them. Though Leboo’s had to have been from the hog. Given we were in a moving vehicle, we arrived back at the camp before the other hunters.

“Where did you learn all that?” I asked our guide.

“I was a medic in the military,” he replied. He’d left being a medic to be a safari guide? There had to be a story behind that, but I’d been too aware of vets back home who’d been too messedup by their time in the service to talk about it, so I held my tongue this time.

Men and women spilled out from their huts to take in the visitors. Leboo hopped out first to approach a group of men. He spoke in that language that I didn’t understand again. Then one of the men approached with Leboo.

“This is our chief, Mingati. You saved his grandson, Lankenua.”

Mingati thanked us profusely. And as the other hunters made their way back to camp, Mingati ordered a feast to be held in honor of the hunters’ great kill, and for us, I guess, for saving his grandson. It wasn’t really explained, so I filled in the gaps myself.

Some of the women prepared the food while others helped paint bodies and faces. I sat back taking it all in.

“Is the woman your sister?” Leboo asked Blake. “Your wife?”

“No. She’s my girlfriend,” Blake said. When Leboo gave him a curious look, Blake explained further. “We’re together, but we aren’t married.”

I felt a little offended that Leboo would ask Blake that question but not me. Like I couldn’t speak? I totally had a voice, too.

“You travel with this woman who is not your wife?” he asked and he sounded absolutely affronted. “What of her family?”

As Blake appeared to be forming his response, Mingati said something in his native language and Leboo told us, “Mingati has stepped in to speak for the woman while you are in the camp.”

“‘Speak for the woman’?” I asked. I got no reply from either Leboo or Mingati.

“Is a great honor indeed,” Leboo went on.

Mingati called something out and a group of women ran over. They helped me up from the ground where I was seatednext to Blake and began to pull me toward a hut. I glanced over my shoulder to maybe get Blake’s help in this matter, considering it appeared that women weren’t allowed to speak for themselves here, but he was being ushered away as well.

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