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A monsoon downpour soaked me, Jesse, and his younger brother, Luke, as we were climbing through the jungle on a very steep ascent in a deep gorge. The sun finally came out, so we just lay down on a small outcropping of rock to soak up a little heat. Soon it dried out our wet clothes and cooked us back to life. And as I was lying there over the depths of the deep valley with my two sons beside me and the clouds billowing up around us, I felt that we were thawing out on the rocks like generations before us, tiny creatures blessed with the mercy of the elements. |
The worst thing for me, being a father, was leaving my 17-year-old son alone in the jungle for a month. He would not have all the support he was used to. I couldn’t help but feel a dad’s fears, knowing he would return to the jungle with all the wild animals, frightening weather, and the day-to-day loneliness. That moment of saying “goodbye” was a tough one.
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I got food poisoning from eating bad meat, and it made me really sick. I knew I shouldn’t have eaten it because it had not been refrigerated or preserved. But what can you do? It was one of those times when you eat what is given to you.
I was walking back to the village late at night, and started puking my guts out. I had the dry heaves so bad that I was exhausted, so I lay down on the ground near a stone wall where nobody would see me making a mess.
A dog came along as I was lying there, and it started slurping up my vomit. It should have grossed me out, but it was so weird that I almost had to laugh. I got my strength back in a hurry and walked on back to camp.
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