Firefighter

I just got back from a visit to the site where I will be living for the next two years. The house is very nice with a fish pond in the front yard and a crazy dog named Lucky. On the first day we arrived at my site, myself and two other volunteers were sitting on the front porch shooting the breeze when a fire broke out near my neighbors house. This is a very common occurance this time of year in Zambia. People start fires to control the bush and for slash and burn farming. We weren't very alarmed and we continued talking for about ten more minutes until the flames started getting closer and bigger. Finally the flames were about 20 feet high and about 20 yards from my house, so we decided we should do something. We grabbed buckets and started throwing water on my house and on the fire as the flames kept growing. Soon enough all the neighbors had joined in on the fight. There were kids no older than ten running through the burned bush with bare feet fighting the fire with tree branches. There were old women with bowls of water splashing the flames. Finally we were able to stop the flames not more that 10 yards from my house. It turns out that the guy who started the blaze was hungry and wanted to eat some rats for dinner, so he started the fire to scare them out. That was my first day at my new home for the next two years.