Every spring break, a number of families from the missionary
community get together for a few days to camp.
This year was no different and we were looking forward to it for a
several reasons –
1
It is the boys’ senior year so they were excited
for the BIG final trip – they were going to take senior pictures at the falls
where we have camped for the past 7 years.
2
We were going to get to introduce Curtis (our
nursing intern) and Elisabeth (Hannah’s tutor) to the fun of the event.
3
I was tired emotionally and physical and was
looking forward to hanging out with friends for a few days.
We took off early on Monday morning – heading about 9 hours
away to our friends house. They are
missionaries closest to the falls so we had made “reservations” for the 7 of us
at their house the night before – knowing that there would be LOTS of people
there. JD and Emily are great people to
be around – easy to talk to and flexible and never make you feel like an
imposition. After camping, we were
headed to CKY. When we go to CKY, we are
usually packed! And when we go camping,
we are also always packed. So with going
camping and then to CKY, it was not pretty – not to mention having 2 extra
people. Our truck was pack to the hilt with
people and gear – we were stuffed in like sardines!
We arrived to find a house full of people. We jumped in and started visiting and helping
with supper. There was another group of
people who were spending the night about an hour away and planned to meet us at
the falls by around 8 am.
After supper, JD called everyone into the living room to
deliver some bad news. An hour or 2
before, a group of teens from the local youth group had gone out to the falls
to celebrate Easter and one of the teen leaders had jumped in the water and
never surfaced. They had not yet
recovered the body.
(Here is an interesting side note – Africans are usually cautious
about delivering bad news, so they try to do it gently. Here is how they broke the news to the father
of the young man who drowned. Now
remember, he had NO idea that there was a problem – just that the kids were out
there swimming (sadly, that afternoon, when the kids wanted to go, the father
begged them not to, saying, I think something bad is going to happen – please
don’t go.). Anyway, he gets a phone call
that says “We have nothing to tell you” and then the person hung up. Second phone call “we have nothing good to
tell you” and another hang up. Third
phone call “David went in the water and we can’t see him – we don’t know if he
is walking up in the woods or where he is.”
Finally they broke the news that he went under the water and never
surfaced.)
It was dark by this time.
JD, Curtis, and one of the other young men went out to see if they could
help with the search. They got there
around 11 pm, climbed down the cliff, and waded in the water but could not find
anything (everyone else was terrified to go in the water, being sure that the
demons in the water had grabbed the young man and were holding him.) The area where he drowned is at the base of a
big waterfall. It is where we spend most
of our time swimming when we are there – and the kids jump off the cliffs into
the water. Apparently the rush of the water has carved a large cavern under the
rocks – big enough to trap a body. And
if you jump in near the falls and get caught by the current, you cannot get
out. They were not able to find anything
and came home.
While they were at the falls searching, Emily and I began
the process of trying to reach the other missionaries at the other stopping
point, not wanting them to arrive early at the falls and land in the middle of
what was going on out there.
Unfortunately, that day, the entire country of Guinea was revamping
their phone system – changing every number.
We tried and tried and finally reached a single missionary woman who
lives in the same town. She was able to
drive up to deliver the news to hold off on coming in the morning until we knew
more. We were also unable to reach a
young couple who lived there in town and worked closely with the young man who
drowned, so Emily and I drove over to tell them in person.
The next morning brought still no news. The body had not surfaced. The town officials were organizing a search
party. It was clear that we could not go
camping at our usual spot, so we made plans to join the other families at
Tinka, an hour back down the road. There
are old mission house there –dating back to the 1940s, I think, and we
sometimes go there for a mini vacation.
It is quite rustic – but had lots of places to pitch tents and housing
for those who preferred a mattress.
We join the rest of the gang in the afternoon and spent the
next few days hanging out together, playing games, taking day trips out to
several other beautiful waterfalls, and generally enjoying being together. The kids were disappointed about not being
able to go to our favorite spot – but they felt worse for the family who lost
their son!
Now for the rest of the story about David - Every day,
people went out to search for the body, a process made harder by everyone’s
fear of the demons in the water. Soon a
woman who practices witchcraft came out and began to offer sacrifices to the
demons so that they would release the body.
She was drumming and chanting.
The church officials and David’s father in particular, were angry with
her. They told her that David was a
Christ follower and that she was desecrating his memory by what she was
doing. Someone suggested that they drop
a banana tree in the water where the body went down so that they could see
where the water took it. The church held
vigils throughout the night.
Two days passed.
One of the men camping with us works on the Mercy Ship and is a
diver. Through a lot of talking and lots
of phone calls, he got permission to bring up his dive team to go dive for the
body – hoping to give the family some closure.
Friday morning, the team took off from CKY with all of the
equipment. A few hours later, we got a
phone call saying that the body had surfaced, so they were able to make contact
with the dive team and turn them around.
Our friend helped the “coroner” pull the body from the water. The doctor feels that David probably hit his
head when he jumped in the water – making it impossible to fight when he got
pulled under in the current.
