Atoole's Intuition

Atoole, my supervisors very corky 6 year old grandson, has become one of my most important allies here in Ngai. Whenever I come back from a day out in the field he's always the first to greet me. He often wears his clothes either inside out or backwards which I appreciate greatly for comical purposes. He gives me random, aggressive hugs, and is often sent to deliver urgent messages which I pretty much never understand being that they are delivered in complicated little kid Lango. He's by far one of the most accidentally funny kids I've ever met. I love having him around.

Considering how much better Atoole makes every experience by virtue of being funny, I decided to have him come with me to the trading center to run some errands. The trading center, which is home to all of our little dukas, is about a 10 minute walk from the health center down a sparsely trafficked dirty road- our main road. The dry season is in full swing and as a result everyone lets their livestock roam free in search of water. The lack of water makes some of the cows a little crazy. While I don't have any ways of knowing for sure I'd say that it's about 100 degrees during the day and there aren't many ways for the large bovine to find relief.

As Atoole and I neared the trading center 4 cows ran into the road bucking wildly and blocking our way. Having had only limited experience with angry cows, I decided to follow Atoole's lead. Despite the fact that he is only a child I knew that Atoole had spent all of his 6 years living in rural villages in Uganda- he would know what to do. We approached the cows and I followed as Atoole passed them on the left, looking totally unfazed. Just then one of the animals set it's eyes on us and started running madly in our direction. To this my fearless leader literally threw his arms up in the air and started shrieking and running away at full speed. Predictably, I started laughing uncontrollably and was unable to move. I managed to get out of the way and Atoole eventually calmed down. The important thing is that now I know that if I'm ever being chased by a wild cow again the best thing to do is panic.