Friday, May 4, 2012

Extra jog

It was going to be a lazy Friday afternoon of leisurely sewing and listening to the boys play outside with their favorite friend. Until the extra jog.

I had just finished a 3-mile workout with our wonderful homeschool helper Katie, we did our 3-miles and were cooling down for the final stretch (in both senses of the word) when I heard panicked screams from the backyard.

Visions of broken limbs ran through my head and I ran out to investigate, only to find that the situation was potentially worse than that. You see, we have versed the kids in the dangers of rabies. It is alive and well here, remember this? The last time a stray dog got under our fence we locked the kids in the house while Kent went out in boots, coats and forced it to leave with rocks and sticks. Now, in the middle of the afternoon with 4 kids outside in shorts we had another stray in our yard.

So I ran for a long-sleeved coat and ran back outside to get the kids to safety and the dog away from our other dogs. Even those who are vaccinated can eventually die of rabies if badly bitten. The vaccine only slows down the virus. I finally spotted the dog, it was a young mangy little thing that wiggled under the front gate, who was thankfully scared off at the first rock. No signs of rabies, but good adrenaline boost anyway.

We got a little extra jog after our 3-miles. A few minutes later the kids are back to playing and all is assuredly well. A little extra jogging never hurt. I love so many things about life here in Congo, but I will admit that it involves more adrenaline than life in other places.

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