How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.
And
An elephant feeds a village.

These were just sayings to us a couple weeks ago. There are no elephants just living in the US so you can’t understand sayings completely until you live them. As a child, one of my favorite places to go was the zoo. I loved watching all the animals. Jeremy and I are celebrating our 16th anniversary today. Wow! We had no idea where life would take us together when we said I do! When we first got married we were living in Covington, TN. It is a small farming town north of Memphis. We would travel to Memphis usually once a month to do our “big” shopping. We also became members of the Memphis zoo. We both loved going every month and just watching these “wild” animals in their enclosures. The modern zoo tries to make the enclosure appear like their natural environment in the wild. Now 16 years later, there are no more enclosures for us. We live in the greatness of the Kalahari Desert. There are elephants living here. We have seen their HUGE footprints. Three weeks ago an elephant died north of Tsumkwe. I saw a video of the Ju/’hoansi cutting it up. Then pieces of it were taken all across Tsumkwe. Uncle received a large amount because he is the big man in our neighborhood. It is his responsibility to give out to each family their portion. So literally an elephant does feed a whole village. We were honored when Uncle gave us a small piece. We feel a part of the family here. I had no idea how to cook elephant. I have no refrigerator or crockpot to save for later or cook for hours. So I cut it into smaller pieces and cooked in a pan. It was chewy so you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. It has a wonderful taste. The next day I watched my neighbors prepare the meat properly. It is even more wonderful cooked over a fire for many hours. Just this past week coming back to Tsumkwe from a village, we saw our first elephants here. They were amazing to watch. We were the ones enclosed in the vehicle in their environment. AWESOME!!! My language helper was with us. She checked the wind direction and said it was okay to get out. We out out and walked into the bush for a closer view. WOW! They are so BIG! Wild elephants can be dangerous so we only stood for a few moments and took a few pictures. Unfortunately there is not enough internet here in Tsumkwe to share those pictures today.

WoW! 16 years together. We are still travelling to the “big” city once a month for shopping and we get to see truly WILD animals. We are so blessed. This year has been one of the hardest. God has sustained us together. We are closer and stronger as a couple. We have learned so much. Thank you to all of you who have prayed. Your prayers are being answered.
~Claudia