wrong turns (Essay Sample)

BUFFALO EYES OF BARAGOI BY ROBAI NYONGESA It was in the wee hours of the morning, when I embarked on my life-changing journey as a newly deployed teacher in Maralal, Baragoi, a remote town in Samburu town in Kenya. I was hyped at first as this was my first posting as a teacher, and I had the opportunity to travel and meet new people. The journey started good but it soon started to be a long one, it was hot and I was now tired and exhausted and had finished all my water, the vehicles made many stops on the way while picking up and dropping people. When we started to enter the interior parts of the town, there were many police posts and guards because the town of Baragoi is surrounded by a national reserve parked with wild animals. When the car could take no more because of mechanical difficulties, the other passengers quickly border other vehicles to their destination, and I was asked to be escorted by foot by the local Samburu and Maasai guards up to the school as it was located inside the national park. We started at a normal pace as we entered the park walking through footpaths, with the ‘Morans’ which means warrior long strides, tall straight body frames covered with ‘Shukas ‘ which is the traditional clothing, we were now starting to go fast. I was half walking and half running trying to keep up the pace because I was not used to walking that fast. About half an hour later, I was now sweating, panting and very tired and still had a long to go till we reached the school and it was already evening. We were now crossing the park, walking through green knee-high grass and tall trees sounding us when one of the guards in front of us suddenly stopped on his heels. He turned towards us and signaled the other two guards in front of me and signed something with his hands that I could not understand. Their faces turned to fear and worry as they continued to signal each other. They tried to tell me that we were in danger and there was a pack of buffalos in front of us. I had already seen their faces and knew that they were alarmed and frightened as Buffalos, especially in a pack are known as the most fierce and dangerous animals in the world and meeting them head-on was not on my menu of a natural safari. Fear started to grip me and was sweating now from exhaustion and fear, “what are we going to do?” I thought to myself, we could not turn back, the police post was far much behind us and was now it was late in the evening going into darkness. They started to whisper in the local dialect which I did not understand. They signaled one of the guards who was smoking a pack of cigarettes to come in front of the line, I didn’t understand why but just kept on looking trying to figure out how to get myself out of there as fast as I could. Before I could do anything or think of something to do, the other guard came in front of me and the other guard behind me. When they asked me to continue walking in silence while facing my left and not turn even for one second towards the direction of the pack I thought they are leading me to my early death, “what is wrong with them,” I asked myself quietly, “do they want us to be crushed to death by this big and dangerous buffalos?” they shut me up before I could utter a single word because the buffalos also don’t like noise. What now, should I trust these strangers whom I had just met today? I had no choice but to do exactly as I was told and follow the guards while facing away from the direction of the buffalos which were now looking at us and just waiting to charge at us. As we were walking towards the buffalos, my heart was pounding so loudly I thought it would fall out of my chest. As we came really close to them, they started to move away from the smoke that the guard in front of us...