From Jiggers to Blind Elephants

That night a terrible storm disturbed the quiet of the lake. It was so fierce that the sound of waves reminded me of the waves of an ocean. Although the storm was a bit frightening, the sound of the waves made me a litle homesick because I had grown up next to the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia Beach, and Chesapeake, Virginia. However, I knew that I was where God wanted me to be, and I was very happy to be next to any body of water. The next day was a beautiful, sunny one, although the lake was still cloudy from the storm. There was also lots of debris from bushes and trees floating on the water. We had breakfast, changed into our bathing suits, and then went to get a good spot by the lake. We looked to our left and several yards down the beach there were two African teen-aged boys up to their waists in the lake. Next to us, still on our left side, were four Indian boys and an Indian girl(Those young people were from India, not American Indians.). Two of the boys were swimming in the water and the remaining boy and girl were standing on top a pier looking out into the lake. I found out later why they were watching the lake so intently. To our right were some people sitting on chairs, as we were, and one man, a Belgian, was wading in the water. Marcus and I decided that we couldn't stand it any longer and we entered the water of Lake Tanganyika. John wouldn't come in with us. He said that he would stay and keep watch. Keep watch for what? I wondered. Marcus and I played in the water for about fifteen minutes. I kept noticing a big log that was floating on our left side. The "log" would float on top of the water, and then go under, come up to the top, and then go under, all the while moving to the right. I thought, How can a log do that? I looked to the left and saw that the African boys had gotten out and were watching the log. I saw that the Indian boys were out of the water and were watching the log. I looked to the right and saw that the Belgian man was watching the log, but he was still in the water. I suddenly thought, That's no log! and I screamed, "Marcus. out! Get out now!" We got out of the lake as fast as we could with the Belgian man right behind us. We turned around to see where the big "log" was and we saw that it was heading right toward us! All of us, John, Marcus, the Indians, the Africans, the Belgian and I backed way up the beach, and as we did, three waiters from the restaurant on the hill came running down throwing rocks at the "log" to keep it from crawling up onto the beach. Yes, you guessed it, the "log" wasn't a log at all it was an extremely large crocodile! The waiters continued to throw rocks and the crocodile turned around and kept swimming. It swam around a huge boulder on the beach and since there were no waiters throwing rocks on the other side of the boulder, it came ashore to lie in the sand in the sun. All of us went around the boulder and saw that the crocodile we had mistaken for a log was twelve feet length and as big around as a tree. It was huge! We were all shaken at the thought of having swum with a twelve foot crocodile. I thanked God for keeping Marcus, the Africans, the Indians, the Belgian, and me safe and uneaten. From that day on, I only went swimming in pools the rest of our time in Africa.