David and the Hyena

You’ve heard of David and Goliath. Let me tell you the story of David and the Hyena.  David lives in Mapuordit, S.Sudan.  When he was a young man tending cattle—as all young men do in S.Sudan--he was sleeping one night on the ground in the cattle camp at the edge of his cattle herd.  He was wakened by a hyena that pounced on him while a ring of other hyenas watched from a short distance. David wrestled the vicious attacker and managed to chase it off. 

The very next day at around 7 a.m. David was milking the cattle, as he did every morning.  He felt a tap on his shoulder.  He turned around to see who it was.  It was the same hyena!  It clawed at his face and gouged out both of David's eyes.  

At the time, there was no clinic or hospital in the area.  The villagers tended his wounds and so David lived to tell this story. But he is completely blind and has thick scars where his eyes used to be.  He is now one of the leaders living in a separate compound for the disabled outside Mapuordit, S. Sudan.  Though he cannot see, he smiles easily and says that his life is good.