Two days ago I had a close encounter with a red river hog. You never know adrenaline until you lock eyes with an animal that can kill or maim you. Kenewa and I were going up the rapids on the river, and I had to get out and walk alongside on the shore when we got to a particularly bad spot. I went behind some trees and climbed over a fallen tree. I looked up to realize I was eye level with a 300lbs hog about 15 feet away from me. I did what many people do when faced with this situation: froze for a second, repeated the very profound “oh shit” phrase a couple times, and looked around for the nearest tree to climb. No climbable trees in site, I decided to put the fallen tree between me and the hog. The hog ran towards me, then veered off to the right before reaching me. I think it was just as scared as I was. It ran into the forest and I felt my heartbeat slow back down to a normal pace, and I might have muttered the phrase “Thank you jesus.” I jumped out on a rock in the river to wait for Kenewa’s arrival, yelling his name. There was raphia palm between me and him and he was hauling the canoe up a big section of rapids, so he couldn’t see or hear me. I saw a hog on the other side of the river running to another island.
When Kenewa arrived, he told me his half of the story. Apparently my hog had circled back around and crossed the river not 10 feet behind where Kenewa was lugging the canoe. He didn’t hear the hog, only saw that the water around him was rippling. When he turned around, he saw the hog. He went for his machete to go catch and kill the hog, but slipped on a rock in the river and fell. The hog ran/swam to safety. Kenewa was so disappointed, saying this meat would have either fed him for a month, or he could have sold it to make big money. He cussed up quite a storm. I didn’t know he knew so many English cuss words! Me, I would have liked to try wild hog meat, but I was happy that we didn’t kill that one. It didn’t hurt me, so I was eternally thankful to it for that. Kenewa, however, still laments the loss of “sweet meat,” and I can’t help teasing him about the hog that got away.