During this visit we had the fortunate opportunity to meet one of my Mothers neighbors. He was very interested in our adventure to South Africa and wondered “why did you go there, on a mission?”. We chuckled, out of embarrassment I guess, for we hadn’t even thought of that. Up to this point in our lives we had never participated in this type of organized, charitable work (not having any real skills we felt would help people in need of life’s basic necessities) and said no, we were there for fun and to film (record) our trip for use in our photography business. We also wanted to continue our quest to learn more about another place on earth we hadn’t been to before. Ironically, this question turned out to be much more telling than what first came to our mind.

Looking back over our Africa trip I guess we did do some “mission work”. It wasn’t in our itinerary or part of our goals of the trip, it just happened. We hadn’t even thought of it as mission work while performing the tasks but now that my Mothers neighbor brought it up, I guess we did some “mission work“.

Let me lay out the details and see if you can figure out where our mission work took place.

After countless hours of travel by plane, bus, trams, jeeps, helicopters, vans, foot and elephant through jungles, desserts, savannas, mountains, rivers and lakes we neared yet another exotic location on our itinerary. Prior to arriving we called ahead to our innkeeper to confirm our arrival and make sure all preparations had been made. Yes, they said, but recent natural events have changed the planned itinerary, so be warned. We had been so busy with our travels it was impossible to keep up with world news.

Upon arrival to our river side destination the natural disaster became immediately apparent. The worst flooding in the local areas recorded history. Greater than the 100 year level everyone tries to prepare for in advance. The compounds out building was partially underwater, unusable. Used for storage and housing the implements and vehicles used in daily upkeep of the compound, the last time anyone dared look inside they witnessed floating gas tanks and their accompanying slick of oil, floating gardening tools and the like. A very dangerous place. Luckily, the main lodge was on land high enough to avoid the onslaught of water. It was, however half surrounded by water with it’s basement partially flooded. Some five hundred sandbags stacked five tall held the river water at bay while seven pumps worked 24 hours a day just to try and keep ahead of the seeping water. Our planned boat rides and nature adventures were obviously not going to happen this trip. Our duty became to help in any way we could in the three days we would be there.

They had lost all their clean drinking water, which came from an underground well under the building. Upstream, the towns and villages waste disposal systems had been overwhelmed and untreated sewage spilled into the flooded river contaminating all the water down stream. All the drinking water had to be boiled. If you dared take a shower best make it short, not have any open sores and do your best not to allow any water into your system.

Going to the bathroom was another gamble. The compound was dependant on an old septic tank. Thankfully it was located on higher ground, next to the main building, but, as proven by the leakage of ground water into its basement through its cinderblock walls, the septic tank could very well be leaking or could become unusable at any moment. “Keep your flushing to a minimum” we were told.

The leaking basement of the main building not only contained the drinking water source but all the electric, which thankfully was still working, the air-conditioning and heating systems, which had been disabled, backup refrigeration and freezer systems plus storage of a lifetime of memorabilia. One extremely unique features of the basement, and what ended up saving it was a series of six huge cement water tanks measuring approximately 5’ x 5’ and 6’deep embedded into the ground, all aligned along one wall that the original owner had installed so he could raise minnows as fishing bait in the basement. Not used for minnows for over thirty years the tanks remained structurally sound and collected the excess water leaking into the basement as the pumps kept sucking out and spitting it back into the swollen river. Without these unusual minnow tanks the basement would assuredly been under feet of water. One of our jobs was to maintain the pumps in the basement and helping squeegee the excess water off the floor into the collection tanks.

Another element to be added to this crisis scenario were bugs and animals. The swollen river had become the perfect breading ground for record numbers of insects. Luckily, we personally had been fully prepared for this and had all our insect protective clothing and sprays and had all our immunization shots and were taking malaria pills. Animals had access to more areas than ever before. Fish, for instance, had their natural instinct kick in as never before. They were acting like salmon, swimming up streams, which now were the local roads, to spawn. The locals had never witnessed such a spectacle of nature like this before so out they came by the hundreds to witness this awesome event.