Community

Hyenas are curious creatures, and on a typical bushveld morning, a young one slunk silently and secretively through the camp and peered through the netted gauze of tent 8.

It is not a regular occurrence to see these oft maligned predators, and to see one at such close quarters held both a fear and fascination in the same moment. He turned up later in the staff bathroom, and for their and our safety had to be darted in order to be extracted.

It was clear that this animal had some real challenges. A broken leg which had quite miraculously healed almost straight, but which still carried a large lump of calcified bone caused a dragging of his left hind leg. His lungs coughed intermittently throughout his drugged slumber due to an infection and there were bite marks everywhere, the most obvious of which were around the head and the face, but many more were hidden under the course and matted hair.

All of this we learned through the tutorage of the local vet Mike Toft, whose Leadership was as astounding as his gentle care, and as he pushed and prodded, pumped and patched, one got the sense that he was also praying for the well being of this injured scavenger. Syringes full of pink and white cocktails were injected into the canine caused cavities, and the flushing antibiotics and antiseptics would emerge from another part of the poor victim’s body.

Mike, who would look as at home as a teacher in a school room as he was beside an operating table , was not going to give him great odds. Probably 50 -50, which is mouth watering if you’re entering a lotto, but not so palatable when the wrong side of the coin is tickets and not just tails or hopefully Heaven and not only heads.

On many occasions this good natured surgeon may have let Nature take its course but this fighter deserved a chance, and besides he was yet to face his biggest challenge.

You see, he had lost his community.

How critical is that in my own life? Who am I without one? Would my chances even be as good as the spin of a coin from the fickle finger of fate if I did not belong?

With apologies to Descartes, in Africa I belong therefore I am, and if I belong I will survive. I will still drag my foot as I walk, or bleed from the head or feel a break in my heart. I may still feel scared or lost or lonely at times, but my community gives me purpose.

It is my responsibility to give to that community to whom I am connected. To care for it and to cultivate it.

The reward is Life. Life worth living fully.

Steve Hall

PS. The last few days in a newly imposed stage 4 of lockdown has allowed us to get onto the streets for a few hours in the early morning.

On Day 1 of this privilege, I walked the roads of our neighbourhood, and covered the princely sum of around four hundred meters.

It took me over an hour.

The rest of the time I talked and listened – probably in that order, and I realised once more the true value of community. To see people face to face. To watch their children on bikes and in prams. To see old friends and new neighbours greet each other, and to re-establish a sense of connection.

For me, these were the real privileges.

Perhaps this will be one of the great opportunities of this new normal, where in the true sense of the Zulu meaning of ‘Neighbour’, we can rebuild.

“Umakhelwana”.

The root of the meaning lies in “To Build.”

To build for one another and then be built for by one another.

Just like a young Hyena, we too can be restored to individual physical health, but we always have a better chance when we belong to a community .