The Dark Side of Beauty

Recently, my wife posted some beautiful photos of our amazing walk from our house to school. I've been meaning to write a similar post, myself, but in a slightly more sinister way.

As school started this year, I saw some posts about truly outrageous journeys that some students have to take each day to get an education. Even right here in Dar, we know of a school that lies beyond a huge hole in the road, where children literally have to climb down and then back up onto the road-twice a day. (and some of our students at HOPAC are raising money to help fix this!)

Our journey is not one of those stories. But, it does have some amusing dangers that we face each day, and that sometimes get the better of us.

Today for example Charlotte's foot somehow came across a spare piece of barbed wire laying right on the path. Every day, our "short cut" takes us under this piece of barbed wire near our backyard. (We also have to step over another piece at the same time.)

Ah, sometimes there are some trees on the path to give us shade...

Except they are not nice at all. We are talking hidden spikes 1-2 inches long. I seriously wonder what was eating these trees which lead to them figuring out how to defend themselves! I've got a few shirts and hats that have met these devils the hard way.

Then, we get to "the hill" part of living on the hill. We don't often go this way, partly because it's just too steep! I tried to take a bunch of photos of this, and it's hard to convey. Let's just say that loose, dry rocky soil, and a high grade incline don't go well together, and we've had a few bruises to prove it.

A shortcut off the hill is to cut through our neighbor's front lawn, and they are kind enough to offer it to us. But then the kids insist on walking along the wall. I used to love heights, but then I had kids, and now I hate them! I have visions of books in backpacks spontaneously shifting, throwing the kid off balance and down the 15-foot-or-so drop. To make it even better, our neighbors have a trampoline just a few feet away from this.

And once we make it past the wicked wire, tricky tree, steep slope, and delirious drop, we come out to a nice meadow that winds down to the side entrance of HOPAC. It's quite pretty. Only, it is home to even MORE bushes with thorns. Seriously, these are just a few. I do not understand African shrubbery and it's penchant for death.

 

Come on, that's just insane!