Sunday on a Sunday

Well, I can now say that I've suruvived my first quest on horseback, and I'm grateful not to be sitting on that terrible thing anymore. It may be another week before I am able to ride again. It all started last Sunday. After countinuous rain, we had a break of blue sky that looked like it was going to last all day. I grabbed a rope and bridle, broke off a stick for whipping, and hopped on Sunday, my horse. I didn't really know where I was heading to, I just knew that I wanted to go. I told my brother I would be back in a few hours, although I wasn't quite so sure about that. We started out slowly, winding through a relatively flat and muddy trail through the bush for about a half hour. We emerged from the bush onto the main road. The one and only road, corrugated and covered in mud. Certain areas were semi-dry and flat, which allowed us to run. We galloped for a few minutes, full speed ahead, before I would slow him down to rest and carefully navigate the muddy pools dotting the road. We ran past a school, where my horse decided to turn shaply into a fence that he didn't see. Luckily I did, so I braced myself with my legs. As he stopped quickly, I was flung foward and was able to catch his neck, wrapping myself around him. No harm done. I hopped off the horse, where he then stepped on my bare foot. Stupid horse. After a few minutes of yelling at the horse I hopped back on and continued south for another half hour. But by this time he had become pretty tired, so I decided to let him rest while I visited a near by Peace Corps Volunteer at his site. We storied for a while, and I contemplated just sleeping at his hut for the night, but in the end I decided to keep moving. I kept southward, going through an area of Tanna known as Middle Bush. Middle Bush is relativly heavily populated, and a fair number of men and boys ride horses here, unlike the North. Naturally every person I passed on the road stopped to ask me questions. 'What island are you from?' they'd ask. 'America' I tell them and they whistle in awe and approval. After some more small storian I would keep moving. As I ride on, kids on the side of the road are yelling to their friends in language. The only words I can ever pick out is white man and horse, and then packs of kids run to the road to get a good look at me. Some of the braver ones follow behind on foot. I gallop ahead, and after I stop I hear their barefoot running to catch up. We play this game until they are too tired to run any more. I come to a village centered around the road. Once again all eyes are on me and everyone is telling me that I must run. I whip my horse, but he has no intention of moving. They give me pointers like just keep whipping him, and so I do, enough to make the large animal that I'm sitting on rather mad I imagine. He starts fighting me, bucking, rearing, and then takes off galloping off the side of the road, sending a group of girls running for their lives. I get him turned back to the road, and with a few more bucks, I'm off again. The villagers shout behind, excited to see a white man ride like them. A few minutes out of the village and another boy on a horse comes and joins me. We ride together for a while, flying through winding trails not more than a foot wide. His smaller horse is in front and my horse is galloping behind him, without an inch between the two of them. I feel like were going 40 mph. The brushes are scratching at my shins and barefeet, and I'm squeezing my horse as tight as I can with my legs to hold on. We come to a large shallow puddle on the path. The first horse runs through it, but my horse decided to try and jump the whole thing. I'm sent off the back of my horse and somehow land on my stomach. I'm cut up by a few sharp sticks but nothing serious, and I find myself laying on the ground and laughing. I couldn't believe my horse just jumped this huge gap and I was so close to hanging on. My horse went ahead though, still following the other one. After 10 minutes of riding, the boy looked behind him and realzed I was no where to be seen so he came back for me. I of course hopped right back on, but this time a little bit sorer than before. I have now been riding my horse for three hours with absolutely no padding or cushioning and only wearing a pair of shorts. Sitting down was getting more and more painful, and now I had cuts across my arm and chest, but we kept going. At this point I figured I must be pretty close to Lenakel, the main town in Tanna. The other boy showed me which rode to follow to get there and then he left. I continued on my own, following trails that I had never seen before. I faced numerous Y's in the road, and often chose the wrong one. I ran into a man who corrected me, I turned around, and took the other path. After another hour I again came to a fork in the road. I saw a girl about my age and asked her which one would take me to Lenakel. She stared at me and couldn't manage to get a noise out. I asked her again, and then she ran away. I think she was afraid of me. I made a choice on my own which turned out to be right. I followed gardens, valleys, and thick bush. I followed a ridge top for a while, and could look down upon the many coconut trees dotting the flat coastal areas below. The sun was beginning to set, a bright red reflecting off deep blue waters and lavender skies. I didn't have time to stop and enjoy the view though, I still didn't know how long I had to go to reach Lenakel. A half hour later I arrived in the dark and stars. By this point it was pooring rain and I was exhausted. It had taken me 6 hours to reach town by horse thanks to my short conversations with everyone that saw me on the road. I started to head towards a Peace Corp's house in Lenakel to crash for the night, when I found out that my horse is afraid of truck lights at night. The roads were relatively empty, of course except for where I was at when my horse decided freak out. As the truck approached he began rearing up, and then he took off, as fast as he could in the pitch dark and I had absolutely no control of him. People were running and screaming, afraid of getting run over by my horse on a rampage. I was hanging on for dear life as I could see we were approaching a large pool of water at full speed. I thought for sure I was going to get laid out on the hard coral road, but he managed to stop at the last possible second throwing on the breaks. I quickly hopped off and decided to just pull him with a rope instead. I struggled pulling him for another half hour when I finally reached the Peace Corp's house. She turned out to be sick, so I had to walk to another Peace Corp's house. When I got there I fell on the hard floor and didn't move until the morning. When I woke up I realized there was no way I was going to be able to sit on the horse. I couldn't even sit in a chair. I spent the day around Lenakel, getting a little work down on a workshop I'm planning, and then I stayed the night again. I woke up at sunrise the next day, still in a lot of pain, but ready to go regardless. I taped up my backside, which looked like it had been rubbed with sandpaper for a few hours, and hopped on the horse trying to ignore the pain. I decided to follow a road near the ocean for half of the way back. I made good time and covered what would have taken 4 hours to walk in less than an hour. At the very end of this road I had my second accident of the trip though. While galloping, my horse shifted directions quickly and stopped and threw me over his head. I managed to do a front flip, landing on my back on the rocky road. Stupid horse. I evenutally pulled myself off of the ground and gave my horse a few good shots to the head, hopped on again, and then I turned into the interior of Tanna. By this point he was already tired, so the going was somewhat slow. My back was getting more and more sore, and my legs were getting rubbed raw from trying to hang onto him while running. My feet were also pretty bruised too. Everytime he ran, his legs would come back and his leg bones would catch my ankle. All I wanted to do was be home, but that was a long ways a way. Four hours later I was close though, still trying to keep the pain out of my mind. I began seeing people I know in my area, and of course all they wanted to do was see me run. I reluctantly would get my horse going, bouncing up and down on my raw skin. Finally, six hours after setting out that morning I arrived at my house. I slid off my horse and walked awkwardly to my house. For the next two days I laid there on my stomach. I couldn't sit down, sleep on my back, and walking around hurt just as bad too. I felt like a truck had run down the middle of my back. But it was completely worth it. I was able to take off on my horse on my own time, meet countless people around the island, see new villages, travel through lush valleys, have little children chase me on the road, and explore new places. Give me another week of recovery, and I'll be back at it.