allan stratton

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Sunday, 10 January 2010

THE MISSIONARIES AND THE HYENAS (TRUE TALE FROM THE BUSH)

Posted on 05:00 by shark


OKAY! One of the devoted followers of this blog -- Char -- has been dying to hear about the connection between missionaries and hyenas. I promised this story ages ago, so before leaving Africa, here it is. (Those who are at all squeamish should ignore this story and just stick with the pictures.)

Okay. So. Hyenas eat what's left of an animal after the meat's been consumed by lions and leopards and etcetera. In short, they eat the bones. As a result, their stools are hard and white from all the calcium. Hold that thought! Rhino ahead!



Right, so where were we? Oh yes, hyenas and missionaries. So, anyway,in the 19th century, British missionaries communicated with the locals through pictures: they drew the stories of Jesus on little blackboards that they took with them through the jungle. Well soon their chalk ran out and they couldn't very well head back to England for more. And it wasn't like there were any stores upriver. So what do you suppose they used instead? Yup.



It is all just too beautiful!



Sigh.

But all is well. I'm off on a snorkeling/writing trip to Cayo Largo. If the Internet is working, I'll post from the Caribbean. If not, I've scheduled a post with photos of me as a little kid with my pets, and also a series of "on the road" posts of an incredible trip my partner and I took to Argentina. It's got Buenos Aires, Evita's mausoleum, Iguazu Falls where they shot Indiana Jones, treacherous mountain excursions, and the Andes! And if I run out of fun stuff there, there'll be a post on some of exciting things that have happened me that I most remember -- like being alone in a mummy's tomb.

A rividerci,

Allan
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to Facebook
Posted in Africa, bush, hyena, impala, missionaries, rhino | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • VIETNAM: FISHING AND FROLIC
    Squid. They're incredibly smart creatures, like pigs, so I always feel bad whenever I eat them. (Unlike cows, which are essentially wal...
  • PIX FROM CANNES!
    Well I'm back from Cannes via Nice and Venice and am still on a cloud. Here's some pix of my time there, including the red carpet, t...
  • CHANDA'S SECRETS FILM: "I'M READY FOR MY CLOSEUP, MR. DeMILLE"
    This is one of Chanda’s roosters (chickens?). I’m afraid I’m no good at figuring out the gender of barnyard animals, except for the ones wit...
  • ARGENTINA: "THIS PIZZA TASTES LIKE CARDBOARD!"
    Okay. There are miles of protected semi-tropical bush in all directions around Iguazu Falls. But there's one very clean little restauran...
  • GOING BUGGY or SILK WORMS: YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR
    Normally I've posted scenic shots from my travels. These aren't them. They come from a silk factory in Hoi An, Vietnam, where I got...
  • ARGENTINA: INTO THE CACHI GORGE!
    So far we'd been traveling on our own. But our excellent travel agent, Pablo Kesselman of Carlson-Wagonlit/Clarke-Way Travel -- who'...
  • VIETNAM: THE ROAD TO NHA TRANG
    Well... cast your mind back a couple of weeks -- before the Cannes and Venice excitement -- and wake up in Dalat, Vietnam's Niagara Fall...
  • VIETNAM: THE MARBLE MOUNTAINS
    Like our own Niagara Falls, Vietnam has allowed a lot of crappy souvenir shops to glom onto some astonishing geological formations. The Marb...
  • CHICAGO: MAYOR DALEY'S BOOK CLUB
    Sorry to take time away from the Vietnam/Cambodia tour, but hey, I've had kind of a busy weekend I thought you'd like to know about ...
  • SALTA, ARGENTINA!
    Iguazu Falls was exciting, but not as exciting as the evening taxi ride from the Salta airport to our B&B. There are three speeds in Arg...

Categories

  • Abby
  • Abbyssinian
  • Africa
  • air travel
  • Al Capone
  • Allan Stratton
  • Amsterdam
  • Andes
  • Angor Watt
  • Argentina
  • Argentina Activa
  • art gallery
  • babalawo
  • Babalú-Ayé
  • birthday
  • blogging
  • Bloomers
  • book giveaway
  • Book Lovers' Ball
  • Booklist
  • Borderline
  • Botanical Gardens
  • Botswana
  • Boutique Hotel de la Fonte
  • Breakfast at Tiffany's
  • Buddha
  • Buddhist monastery
  • Buddhist monastery Vietnam
  • Buddhist monk
  • Buenos Aires
  • Bueonos Aires
  • bush
  • butterflies
  • Cachi
  • Cachi Gorge
  • Cambodia
  • Cannes
  • Cannes Film Festival
  • Cappadocia
  • Carlson-Wagonlit/Clarke-Way Travel
  • cats
  • cats cuddling
  • Caves of Bellamar
  • Chanda
  • Chanda's Secrets
  • Chanda's Wars
  • Chango
  • Chicago
  • China
  • China Beach
  • Christmas
  • Cloudy Mountain
  • cows
  • Cu Chi
  • Cu Chi tunnels
  • Cuba
  • Dalat
  • Dennis Foon
  • dePont
  • Devil's Throat
  • Diem
  • disappeared
  • District 2
  • dog
  • driving in Argentina
  • dtv
  • duPont
  • duPont mansion
  • Egypt
  • Elandsdoorn
  • Emperor Bao Dai
  • evil eye
  • Evita
  • extras
  • fig tree
  • film
  • Francois Chalais Award
  • Gary Schmidt
  • General Thieu
  • giraffe
  • grave robber
  • Great Wall
  • Greig Buckle
  • Guardalavaca
  • Guemes
  • Halong Bay
  • hills
  • hippo
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Ho Chi Minh City
  • Hoi An
  • Holly Cupala
  • Hue
  • Humahuaca Gorge
  • hyena
  • Iguazu Falls
  • impala
  • Inca
  • Iris
  • Italy
  • Jo'burg
  • Jonah
  • Keaobaka Makanyane
  • Khomotso Manyaka
  • Kincardine
  • La Boca
  • lanterns. Hanoi
  • Las Americas
  • Lerma
  • Life Above All
  • lizard
  • Lotus
  • Ludwig of Bavaria
  • Malawi
  • Mama
  • Marble Mountain
  • Matanzas
  • Mayor Daley's Book club
  • Mekong Delta
  • Melia
  • Melia Las Americas
  • Melia Varadero
  • missionaries
  • Mom
  • mopani worm
  • mountains
  • Mr. Lesole
  • Mrs. Tafa
  • Munich
  • Nadia Neophytou
  • Nha Trang
  • Oliver Schmitz
  • Oliver Stoltz
  • Oliver Stolz
  • Omeramergau
  • Oscars
  • P2
  • Pablo
  • Pablo Keselman
  • Penster
  • Peron
  • Phoenix Lottery
  • Playa corales
  • Pope Paul
  • Poseda de Luz
  • pre-Incan civilization
  • Presidential Palace
  • Publishers Weekly
  • purification ritual
  • Quill and Quire
  • Recoleta
  • Recoleta Cemetery
  • remote farms
  • Reunification Palace
  • rhino
  • Richie's Picks
  • Rita Williams-Garcia
  • Roger Ebert
  • rubber plantation
  • rubber tree
  • safari
  • Saigon
  • salt plain
  • Salta
  • San Telmo
  • santera
  • santería
  • School Library Journal
  • Scooby Doo
  • Seven Colored Mountain
  • Siamese
  • Siem Reep
  • silk worms
  • Soly
  • Soly. Life Above All
  • South Africa
  • Spartacus
  • Spirit Doctor
  • squid
  • Summer Palace
  • swimming
  • Tabby
  • Thailand
  • the Bean
  • the Crazy House
  • The Phoenix Lottery
  • TIFF
  • Tigre
  • Tilcara
  • Tim Wynne-Jones
  • Tinah Mnumzana
  • Toan Quang Ton
  • Toronto
  • Toronto International Film Festival
  • travel
  • tunnels
  • Turkey
  • Van Goor
  • Varadero
  • Venice
  • Viet Cong
  • Viet Cong tunnels
  • Vietam
  • Vietnam
  • Vietnam Book Fair
  • Vietnam War
  • warthog
  • water buck
  • water buffalo
  • waterfall
  • writing deadline
  • yellow hornbill
  • zoo

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2010 (60)
    • ►  October (1)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (1)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (7)
    • ►  May (10)
    • ►  April (9)
    • ►  March (9)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ▼  January (9)
      • ARGENTINA: "THIS PIZZA TASTES LIKE CARDBOARD!"
      • SKINNY DIPPING AT IGUAZU FALLS!
      • IGUAZU FALLS: SEEING IS BELIEVING!
      • GRAVE ROBBING AT RECOLETA CEMETERY -- PLUS EVITA'...
      • DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA!
      • PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
      • THE MISSIONARIES AND THE HYENAS (TRUE TALE FROM TH...
      • FINAL CHANDA'S SECRETS FILM POST -- THEN ON TO ARG...
      • CHANDA'S SECRETS FILM: BEFORE LEAVING...
  • ►  2009 (14)
    • ►  December (14)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

shark
View my complete profile