A little lost

I felt it before I saw it. Expecting the cool, hard dirt of the Tanna Island forest floor, my bare foot, instead, stepped onto something warm and furry. I grabbed onto Emily’s arm and a sound I didn’t know I could produce sputtered from my lips, “Gahhhhmmmphh!!!”. In my attempt to have a true local experience, I chose to forgo my sandals and step out into the Vanuatu wilderness with no shoes. The rat dashed into the forest thinking, I’m sure, “She’s trying to kill me!” But no, little grey rodent, it was you that induced the near heart attack.
Most soft-hearted adventurers would have turned back. With Emily’s encouragement, I wiped my foot against a rock and soldiered on. We were heading through the dense trees, on a well-worn path, to the other side of the community where we would help the local women prepare our going-away meal.
The bamboo houses started to appear with more frequency and I knew we were getting somewhere. “Just around here I think,” Emily said, as we passed by a large pink and black pig attached to a tree by a rope I’m sure he could have chewed off given some motivation. I heard familiar laughter and voices. We made it!
It wasn’t until I made it around that last fateful corner around that the world seemed to turn in on itself. I was expecting to see the warm and welcoming faces of the women and children that I had grown to know. Staring back at me was the glassy-eyed face of a cow. Unfortunately for her, that was all I saw. Her brown head resting carefully up against a tree. In my ignorance I didn’t realize that preparing the meal also meant the big brown cow that I had also grown to respect. The women beckoned us over with waves of their arms and shouts of greeting. Emily took one look at my blood-drained face, “It’s okay, I’ll explain to them,” she said.
I didn’t need to be told twice. I turned on my heels and ran. After five minutes of aimlessness, I realized I was unequivocally lost. I continued on, hoping that I would see a familiar bend in the path. Each house looked the same, each tree looked liked the one before it. A few Ni-Vans poked their heads out from their houses to watch the Canadian wandering through their community. They smiled, waved, and I’m sure had a few laughs at my expense. Just as my heart started to pump a little faster, my host-sister jumped out from behind a tree. She laughed, smiled, and beckoned to me. I put my head down, laughed, and followed behind.