103. Welcoming Party

103.

Welcoming Party

After a hearty breakfast of soup and rice our party of about ten men is walking single file along a narrow, swampy path through the dense dark jungle toward our final goal, Joproken village. An old man carrying an antique shotgun follows us as guard.

After a four-hour trek we approach, in a sunny clearing, an isolated grass and bamboo hut. A young woman with white clay patterns painted on her face comes to the door opening and Brother Joe warns me to stay back because these marks are bush medicine and there may be sickness in the house. He confers with the woman and soon declares, “There is no sickness. This is a happy occasion! This woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy yesterday.” He asks the mother if she has named the baby yet and when she says, “No.”, he suggests that she name the child “Tom” after me since I am, he says, a good man.

The woman is delighted with the suggestion and says she will gather her family and meet us here for a “naming ceremony” when we return from Joproken.

After another hour’s march I begin to hear drums in the distance. Soon thirty dancing, singing, gesticulating adult Africans intercept us and lead us the last half-mile into Joproken. It is such a thrilling, unexpected and Tarzan-movie-like experience that I taste popcorn!

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