Janet Snavely

Wings Over Zululand Janet Snavely

"The terrible grinding crunching coming from the underside of the plane ended with two spine-twisting snaps. I reached up and turned off the master switch and said to my passenger, 'Let's get out of here quick before it catches fire!' ..." * "One big giraffe bull kept circling the car, bowing, and pawing the ground. Periodically he leaned against the car gently, letting us know that we were intruding on his territory. He was so close I could count the ticks on his stomach..." * "After I finished the wash one day, I noticed all the muddy rain boots on the porch and decided to throw them in for a quick clean up. Before long, I saw little heads sticking up out of the water. Lots of little heads. With bulging eyes..." * This is not the story of South Africa, or of the Ingwavuma district, or even of Mosvold Mission Hospital. This is a simple family journal. I'm not saying the family was simple, however! These were kids who performed electrical experiments on bugs, fooled around with explosives, played tricks on the hospital staff, kept a huge variety of unusual pets, dragged around a decaying ostrich leg, and held hands with a king. But then again, what would you expect with a mother who put taffy under all the teddy bears in her college dorm, pretending they had gone to the bathroom on the beds; dressed up our old dog as the "fat lady" for a fair; introduced us to the sassy trickster Brer Rabbit; and who still made stuffed animals talk at age ninety-three? Or with a father who welded old metal parts together to make a "far out" bird for an art show; who picked up snakes, dead or alive; who cajoled the staff at a hotel into giving him ice cream for breakfast; and who helped his kids make smoke bombs and flame throwers?