1: up in bella coola mum and john had a boarder in their house who was from malawi, africa. he had won a scholarship, and had decided to use it studying forestry on the north-west coast of canada, of all places.
so, as he was traipsing around in the woods one day, the man from afirca jumped through some bushes down into a small dell that was totally clear - except for the grizzly bear in it.
the bear, only a few steps away from him, stood up menacingly, and then lunged forward, pinning him to the ground.
man and bear regarded each other, face to grizzled, rank, fetid face.
then the bear gave the man's terrified expression one giant lick and promptly ran away.
the next day, the man was back on the plane for malawi -- you know, where you only have to worry about lions?
2: after visiting several times, the same african man fell in love with, and married, a nuxalk woman in bella coola.
after the wedding, he drove to the large, open dump to get rid of the garbage from the ceremony and subsequent dinner.
the dump is often a destination for the few tourist busses that come to the area because it's typically full of bears, and this day was no exception.
most of the bears seemed to be foraging at a distance, so the man from africa climbed into the back of his pick-up and busied himself throwing bags over the side, until a bear jumped up onto the flatbed itself. the man paused, blinked, then passed it a bag.
3: in bella coola there's a youth program that aims at (re)acquainting local kids with indigenous first nations spirituality and wilderness survival skills. part of the program entails enduring a "solo", where each kid is sent off alone, or nearly alone, into the bush for a day or two with a potato and two matches.
so, this visiting german girl found her way into the program and was on her solo with two other kids. that night they decided to sleep by the side of the river. they were out in the open, tentless, in sleeping bags, probably smelling like the dinner they had just eaten, dozing soundly, when the girl was woken up by what she assumed were the snorts and snufflings of the camp dog.
she was lying on her stomach, but when she opened her eyes she saw that the creature in question was really a bear who probably thought she looked, and smelled, like a sack of garbage in her sleeping bag in the dark.
he sniffled and snuffed, huffed and nosed at her, for what felt like an eternity. finally the suspense was too much for the poor girl and she thought to the bear, "If you're going to bite me, just bit me now and get it over with!." so, right at that instant, it did.
she screamed, of course, and the poor bear had never heard a bag of garbage scream before, so it ran away terrified. the girl, on the other hand, was taken into the clinic and given all the necessary shots and medications for a bear bite to the bum, after which she elected to rejoin her solo comrads and finish the program. brave girl!
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