Bats and a Bird

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. It conjures up memories of fallen leaves, chilled crisp air, family catching up around a table, a delicious home-cooked meal, and nursing food comas around a smoldering fire.

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Africa? You search, borrow and improvise. Turns out, it’s a pretty exportable holiday.

Our families may be far away, but good friends make their own sort of family. My roommates and I did our best to create an authentic setting. We pulled together all the table and table-like objects in our home (including the washing machine) and covered them in fabric. We set proper place settings and lit candles and even projected a fireplace on the wall. The weather did its part to recreate home, gifting us with a damp, chilly day.

My roommates and I found a turkey and the makings for stuffing. This was my first turkey, so I was fairly concerned throughout the whole process. But, with help from my roommate, it came out golden brown and delicious.

Our guests brought everything together with their outstanding cooking. The scrumptious spread included:

-          The Turkey

-          Roasted Rosemary Chicken

-          Cheesy Bread

-          Corn Casserole

-          Green Beans

-          Mashed Potatoes

-          Gravy

-          Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows and Candied Pecans

-          and of course, Apple Pie

(Sitting down to dinner)

The next morning, we roused ourselves early (not without a struggle) to head north to Kasanka National Park. Every year tons (hundreds of thousands? millions?) of fruit bats migrate from all over South-central Africa to this particular park. My friend explained the attraction well: “Bats are like hair; if you see one you might be like ‘ew’ but if you see a whole bunch, you think ‘wow, that’s pretty beautiful.’”

We offroaded to our campsite, pitched our tents, and then set out to catch the bats taking off at sunset. I’m not sure anything could have prepared us for what we saw; it is such an extraordinary event. It started suddenly; someone spotted a few bats overhead, and they quickly grew in number. We rushed from a parking lot to an open field to get a better view. We could see a bat cloud swirling and growing in size amongst the trees in front of us. It grew and grew and eventually headed our way, spreading across the sky as far as the eye could see. It was hard to capture the scale of it on camera, but the setting sun behind the clouds did make for a nice backdrop.

The next morning, we awoke early to see them returning to their trees at sunrise. On the way, some of us rode in the bed of the pickup. The bumpy half hour ride was made completely worth it by our surroundings. To watch the light grow imperceptibly; to see the trees and animals materialize out of the heavy mist, to catch sight of the first bats flying overhead through the tree canopy, following the car; it was all incredible. Watching the sun rise over misty fields from the hide built into a tree high off the ground was wonderful as well.

The most beautiful moment of this very beautiful weekend, in my opinion, came on our drive back to camp after the sun had set. After fording a river, we came out into an open field. Switching the car off, we could see thousands of fireflies all around us. As we sat in the darkness, more and more of them materialized. The stars pushed their way through the clouds and, on the horizon, thunderheads crackled with lightening. It was one of those moments that will stick with me for a very long time.