Invasion

Each and every weekend holds something exciting.

The weekend following the homestay, I went on a weekend retreat with Jubilee, my church here. It was very much like a His House fall retreat, except for the fact that I could watch the sunrise over the ocean from my bunk bed, and more of the mountains we were halfway up on, behind us. It was located in Simons Town (where the pengins live on the beach and boulders) at a retreat center called Rocklands. Absolutely beautiful. Lots of worship, singing, prayer, messages, spending time with my lifegroup and Megan who also came. Saturday it was so very windy and cold we didn’t spend much time outside.

It was very very nice, but on this church retreat I experienced more fear than I have in all my time here in Cape Town-and no, not from a fire and brimstone sermon. Megan and I were sitting by the window, watching the waves on the ocean and the wind blowing the trees, eating granola and carrots I think; just chatting and enjoying each other’s company. Suddenly the other students in the lounge area with us, connected to the dining hall and kitchen, start running and screaming. You would think zombies were attacking or something. My initial reaction was “a bird must have flown in the dining hall” because back in America, this too would result in screaming and running. Megan and I of course got up to investigate the ruckus and found not a bird, not zombies, but a BABOON!!! Now I knew there were baboons in this area, because there are warning signs on the roads and I had seen more signs further in town and past when I biked past them during the Cape Argus ride. But nothing prepared me for this massive, monstrous beast with giant fangs leaping on the dining hall table, knocking things over in his search for food and human blood. Well, probably not human blood-but you wouldn’t know that by the angry, hungry look in his eyes. As he started running toward us we all scattered and the camp host closed off the sectional divider between the dining hall and lounge. Several of us huddled by the crack to watch the baboon control crew (I’ll call them bcc) attempt to remove the beast, especially because he had found his way into the kitchen where the cooks were preparing supper for us and we were mildly concerned about our food for the evening. The bcc successfully lured the baboon out of the building and we all breathed a sigh of relief and ventured back into the dining hall to make some tea to calm the nerves. My heart rate slowly returned to normal. I found it ironic how my first experience with real fear in Cape Town was at a church camp, not downtown at night, or in the townships, or on the train: all places that are supposedly dangerous. South Africa doesn’t have the best safety statistics after all….

The cherry on top was the next morning, as we watched some of the bcc work their way up the mountain. We were told to make sure our doors were locked, because a mob of baboons was making its way down the mountain. The baboons are invading!!! This was the atmosphere of the morning. Thankfully no baboons made it into our cabins, and only one went through the hall-not even into the dining hall again because we all made a mad dash to slam shut all the doors. Baboons are NOT cute, as some may think. On a level of scariness, a baboon is equitable to a dog chasing you and snapping its teeth while biking.

All in all, it was an exciting weekend, filled with good fellowship, experiences, learning, and nature.