Elephant Encounter

Today was a weird day. I started off working with the I-TEC team that is here. They are upgrading the electrical system. Today also a few of the team had to go to immigration in Livingstone. They had immigration problems to say the least; so I had to take the Head Administrator of the hospital to Livingstone to help figure out the situation. Also along with the administrator I had to be the ambulance driver. There were two patients that needed to go to Livingstone General Hospital. We got all loaded up and left about 12 hours. Driving on the road to Livingstone is always an adventure. As we got closer to Livingstone, we drove around one corner and there were two semi trucks coming directly at us in both lanes. The one had to go in the ditch and I had to slam on the brakes to avoid the accident. Then a few kilometers down the road, around another corner, an elephant walked out into the road. I slammed on the brakes and noticed three more on the right side of the road. Once the elephant on the road saw the truck it's ears went out and started charging the truck. The administrator was very excited and frightened. He kept telling me, "Back up, Back up." I kept backing up but the elephant kept coming towards the truck. I probably backed up a quarter of a mile or so, but eventually the elephant decided we were no threat and went to the other side. Once it was in the ditch we drove a little and then a huge elephant came across. He was BIG, but he did not bother us. After that we just drove by and headed to the hospital. I looked it the rear view mirror and even the sick patients were smiling. It made everybody's day. We got to the hospital, dropped off the patients and then headed to immigration to see if we could help the situation. To make a long story short we had to back the following day and meet a certain person to finalize the immigration problems. From day to day I never know what I'll be doing. It keeps life interesting.