A fantastic week last week with CAFO in town for the Orphan Summit - which I will be sure to share on super soon. But today I want to share on hyenas. Why you ask? Well don't you know we are hunting hyenas here at the Hammons house!!
Tariku comes from the Kembata region of Ethiopia - located in the southern part of the country and yes there are hyenas there. Hyenas have ALWAYS been a trigger point for him - a shall we say sticky widget of sorts. Now our house here in Brentwood backs up to a hillside full of trees and so it took us quite a long time to convince Tariku that hyenas did not live in those trees and that in fact hyenas did not even live in America much less Brentwood Tn! We do however have foxes and this spring we have a gorgeous red fox that calls our street home. The boys have seen him almost every morning out the front window and we have talked about him to no end!
BUT Sunday evening as Tariku and I were coming home from His Little Feet concert in Murfreesboro we pulled onto our street and there were 3 men at the base of our street with flashlights and a very large stick. Now we did not stop to talk to them but I could tell immediately where this was going and I knew it was not about to end well. Tariku asked where the hyena was - I immediately reminded him there are no hyenas in America but those 3 men triggered a memory and so now for the last 2 days we have been on a mission for hyenas. I know in his logical mind he knows there are no hyenas but when I look into his eyes I see a scared little ethiopian worried about himself and his brother and the hyena. So tonight we will again make sure there are no hyenas in our yard and tomorrow morning I will take the boys to the bus via the car to ensure no hyenas. Some may wonder why? Well the answer is simple when your children were scared of the the monsters under the bed or had bad dreams you did what you needed to help them overcome their fears in the night and so I - I hunt hyenas in Brentwood.
Clearly not the same but apparently not all that different in the eyes of an Ethiopian child
