Water Buffalo

When we were in Minneriya, all of a sudden, I was chosen to take a survivors course. We were then told how to chop with our machetes, chop bamboo, about this size because there was all kinds of it along the rivers. And then use vines as cords and make the big end, make a float about that wide. And then it came up to a point and then you have one bamboo pole to go down a river. We were taken to a spot and one of us, about every two to five minutes, would take off down this river, one very big river. And I remember, usually I could look ahead. I could see another fellow ahead of me and maybe I’d see another person behind. And I came around the corner and there wasn’t anybody ahead of me or anybody behind. And here’s a whole herd of water buffalo are having a drink in this small creek. It wasn’t any wider than this room. You know the saying, ‘I didn’t know whether to shit or go blind’? But there was no - I didn’t have much choice, you know. The stream wasn’t fast, but I still … and I decided, well, I would go through and I quietly went by this 15 to 20 water buffalos. And they never worried about me one bit. But they sure scared me.