Earth's Eulogy, page 11
As the warrior charged, he was shocked when Paul grabbed his hair and pulled his face into Paul's chest. Then the warrior was very confused when there was a lot of movement, and he went flying off the rock. All he could think as he headed toward the ground was, "What's happening." Most of the warriors were too busy settling scores to notice the move, but everyone else watched, and to their eyes, what happened was unreal.
A group of three warriors that just dispatched their rival saw what happened, and they charged over to Paul. Paul thought, "These guys may be buddies, but they don't have a clue how to fight in groups."
Paul simply moved around so that he could fight them one at a time. He swept one of the warriors off his feet. The second one stepped on his foot to stop Paul from moving. Paul grabbed the warriors arm and lifted the foot that had the other guys foot on it and easily threw him off the rock. By now, he had maneuvered the third guy so that the edge of the rock was behind him. Paul did a simple front kick, kicking him off the rock. Well, the first guy was a little faster getting off the ground, after the sweep, than Paul thought he would be. As Paul just finished his kick, the warrior wrapped his arm around Paul's neck, and Paul did a simple shoulder throw, and the guy went off the rock.
At this point, the first guy he threw off the rock was back up there and charging Paul. Paul was annoyed that he had to fight the same crappy warrior again, and so he punched him right in the solar plexus and then had to dodge as the guy started throwing up.
Paul was just glad that these guys were not up to gladiator standards or fighting with weapons. If Paul had chosen to go to Rome, he may very well have been put in the Colosseum and been forced to face opponents who knew how to fight as well as he did.
During the fights on warriors rock Paul never sought out an opponent. He just waited for others to find him. Throughout the contest, everyone got kicked off the rock multiple times except Paul. Everyone fought Paul at least once, and after being badly defeated by Paul a couple of times, they either stopped fighting him or got some friends to help them, and Paul easily beat them.
The problem was that all of his opponents were scared to get hit. When they fought, they leaned back, which made their punches weak and made them predictable. To a certain extent, if you had no idea what you were looking at, it looked impressive. If you knew what you were looking at it was simple to step on a foot, to hold them in place, and do a center blow, or bump a knee, or sweep a leg, or do all sorts of maneuvers because you knew they were going to lean back and step back.
To make matters worse, Paul was at least one hundred and eighty pounds, and the largest warrior of the tribe was at best one hundred and forty. All the warriors were clearly malnourished. It is easy to defeat a starving foe.
In the end, after a couple of hours of fighting, all the warriors were worn out, and Paul wasn't even breathing hard. It's just that Paul had fought and trained longer than these adolescents have been alive. He had been trained by men who have taught fighting for over half a century. Paul had fought and sparred with people who had much more experience than he had. Furthermore, his last belt test was ten hours long, and at the end of it, he sparred fresh opponents for an hour. He had been taught since he was eleven that if you cannot fight when you're tired, you cannot fight. In all honesty, Paul did not consider what he did this day fighting, more like assessing poor students.
On the ground, what the people saw was that Paul was easily winning, and he looked bored doing it. This fight made the chief nervous. Paul could easily challenge the Chief for the Chief's spot. If the Chief knew that Paul could not shoot a bow, he would have been planning to hunt him down after he left, but Paul's life was spared due to the Chief's ignorance.
The Chief came out on the boulder and stood next to Paul and declared, "Paul is the victory of this planting festival. He will sit next to me and the witch doctor at the feast!"
With that, they went down to where the food was waiting, the Chief, the witchdoctor, and Paul grabbed their food first, then they sat on what Paul would consider a blanket or a rug on the ground and began to eat.
It was then that his wife brought the wheel barrel over, and Paul got up and told her, "Chazia, disregard what I said in the note." Paul had to use the English word for note since the tribe's language had no words for anything to do with writing.
Then Paul said, "Chief, I have some gifts for the village."
Paul could never have said a worse thing at that moment. If Paul had said this simply in front of the Chief's guards, it would have been one thing, but Paul had said this in front of the entire village. Now the villagers were not getting things from their Chief, but this astoundingly great warrior.
The first thing Paul pulled out was a forty-pound bag of grain seed. Paul said, "These seeds will survive better than any seed you ever put into the ground and will grow at least ten times as much food. If you plant this seed tomorrow, you will not go so many days without eating next year."
Then Paul pulled out three pig spearheads, and said, "I noticed that many of your men carry spears with stone heads. I made these spearheads out of iron. Pick the men you want to carry these spears, and I will show them how to attach the head to rods. Oh, and thank you for your generosity of one of your cattle I will be able to produce more iron with it. Probably enough for everyone to have their own iron weapon."
The Chief was getting more furious. Paul had shown his warriors that their greatest strength, the iron, came from Paul, not the Chief. Because Paul mentioned their deal about the cattle in front of the entire village the Chief couldn't take it back. Considering Paul pointed out, giving him one of the cattle would allow Paul to give everyone their own iron weapon, they might kill the Chief if he didn't give Paul one of his cattle.
Then finally, Paul brought out another bowie knife and said, "Chief, please give this knife to whomever you think is the most worthy of it."
At this moment, the Chief knew Paul was after his job. You become Chief by taking the job from the last guy, but you stay Chief by making the strongest warriors in your village happy. Whoever he doesn't give this knife too will be unhappy with him.
The Chief would never believe it if Paul told the Chief he didn't mean to undermine the Chief's authority on purpose. That said Paul did not come from a totalitarian country, and the tribes in sub-Sahara Africa at this point were totalitarian. The Chief owned everything until someone killed him and became the new owner. When Paul showed that good things came from him and not the Chief, Paul undercut the tribal government. Worse yet, the Chief couldn't do anything about it.
The last thing Paul did was say, "I have one last gift for the village. This is called a wheelbarrow, you can put heavy loads in it, and it will make it far easier to move around."
All the Chief could think about now was how he would have to put a stop between all the people fighting over this new toy. He hated Paul at this moment. In his fury, he told one of his guards, "Go find the most spirited calf in the herd and give that to Paul." The guard left to do so.
As the night went on and the people feasted, Paul noticed something. The men ate, the women ate, some children sat by their parents and ate, but a lot of children didn't have anything to eat. Paul asked the Chief, "Why are there people not eating anything, isn't this feast for all?"
The Chief said, "What people?"
Paul said, "The children, not sitting by adults. They looked famished, but only those by adults have food."
The Chief said, "Oh, don't worry about those; they are orphans. They are too young to work, and their parents are dead. Nobody cares if they live or die. Once the feast is over, they can have the scrapes. Most die, but some persevere and survive."
Paul was shocked, "What do you mean nobody cares if they live or die?"
The Chief said, "They can't do much to help the village, and it's hard enough to feed ourselves and our own children. Why should we care about someone else's child? If they get to the place where they can help us, great they will get a share of food. If not, who cares?"
Paul said, "I care. I will take those children back with me to my hill."
The Chief said, "Go ahead and take as many orphans as you want." The Chief was actually very happy about this. He did not like how the orphans begged, but he didn't have the heart to kill them most of the time since they were from the same village. If nothing else, they would be a strain on Paul's resources. Perhaps they would all starve together, getting rid of a bunch of the Chief's irritations.
With that, Paul grabbed food and went to one of the orphans and the orphan started to turn and run, but Paul called out, "My name is Paul, what's your name?"
The boy stopped and answered, "My name is Xadreque."
Paul said, "Wow that's a strong name. Well now that I know your name and you know my name we can be friends. Do you want to be my friend?"
The boy nodded his head.
Paul said, "I have eaten so much at the feast. I can no longer eat anything else, and I have all this food leftover do you want some?"
The boy nodded, and Paul handed him some food, and the boy started inhaling the food. When that happened, a bunch of the orphans ran over. Paul gave each of them a little bit of food. No more than a mouthful for most. In all honesty, if Paul knew that these children were not going to join in the feast, Paul would not have eaten but given all his food to them.
With that, Paul said, "If you do not have a parent, I would like to take you to my home and feed you every single day. If you want to come and get fed every day, meet me at my brother in law's hut in the morning. My brother in law is Abilio do you know who he is?"
The kids nodded their heads, yes.
With that, Paul went to talk with his wife. She said, "Paul, why were you feeding the orphans?"
Paul said, "Because nobody else was. Furthermore, I told the orphans to meet us at your brother's hut in the morning, and that we would take, as many came home with us, and we would feed them from now on."
Chazia was upset, "WHY!? You have a responsibility to my kids because you married me. And I was going to wait to tell you, but I am pregnant and have your child on the way now. You have a responsibility to our family first!"
Paul was shocked that he was going to be a father, but he said, "How could I look my child in the face if I let these other children starve to death? What would happen to your children, or our child if we were both to die? You don't think I hadn't noticed that when Abilio came to bring us to this festival, your children don't have any affection for their uncle? He would not take care of them. But if we teach people to take care of the orphans, then if our children become orphans, they will be taken care of!"
Chazia was shocked by his statement. She had never thought about that. If they treated orphans well, then perhaps others would do the same for her kids if they were put in that position. Their culture never allowed that type of thinking.
At that moment, Abilio came over and, with a huff, asked, "Are you trying to become the chief?"
Paul was shocked and said, "No, why!?"
Abilio said, "In front of the entire village, you basically showed you could do the chief's job better than the chief could."
Paul said, "Well I could, but I don't want his job, I think I would rather grow my crops, and build stuff rather than govern a village."
Abilio was shocked and covered up Paul's mouth when he said that and said, "Don't let anyone hear you say that! My life has been contentious here for some time, along with those hunters who follow me. After your little show the Chief is furious, and he will take it out on me and my fellow hunters. We have already talked about it; we are going to follow you to your hill tomorrow and let the chief cool off. Now come to my hut before you do anything else to make the Chief want to murder us all."
With that, Paul followed Abilio to his hut. They were both shocked to find that every orphan in the village was sitting in front of the door of Abilio's house. Twenty-three children from the ages of one to ten.
Paul's heart broke when he saw the orphans. They were so desperate that they all came here as soon as Paul left them. Some of the very young were clearly with an older sibling. Paul didn't want to think about what happened to those who became orphaned before they were weaned.
Then Abilio screamed out, "What are you useless orphans doing here?"
Then Paul grabbed Abilio by the shoulders and screamed in his face, "They are here by MY invitation. They are also coming to my home tomorrow, along with you and your men!"
Abilio was terrified, he saw Paul kill two lions, and he was calm when he did that. What could he do if he got angry?
Then in a very calm voice, Paul said, "In fact, Children, please stay inside the hut tonight, you will be better protected, and when you get to my home tomorrow, you will get to find out what a hot bath is!"
Abilio was too scared to protest.
Chapter 18 November AD 71 Responsibility
Paul ended up bringing twenty-three orphans back to his home. Abilio and four of his hunters and their families came too. Three of the hunters were married and brought their wives and children. The one that wasn’t married had a child who was two. His wife died a year ago of the sleeping sickness.
Paul was the oldest in their community at thirty-one. Chazia was the second oldest at eighteen. Abilio was the third oldest at sixteen. Three of Abilio’s hunters were fifteen, and one was fourteen. All of the hunters were at least a year older than their wives.
As Paul realized the age group of the supposed adults in the village, he realized why the orphans were neglected so badly. The adults were basically children themselves. To make the situation more awkward, although Abilio was the leader of the four hunters, he was also the only one who was not a parent.
Paul now had a lot of work to do. Early in the morning, Paul made breakfast for everyone, and everyone but his wife and her kids were surprised. None of the new people in his home were used to eating every day, and Paul was going to change that. After breakfast was over, Paul needed to have a meeting with the adults to discuss his plan for the children. The children were sent out to play, and Chazia to watch them. Chazia was sent out to watch the children because Paul already told her his plan the night before, and Chazia knew what the children should not play with, and Chazia had no problem making children mind.
As Paul looked at the adults, he needed to give direction too; he couldn’t help but accept his situation. It was a hard thing to bear, but in this world, Paul should be happy that his youngest adult was thirteen years old. All too often, eleven-year-old children are considered adults. Fortunately, all his very young adults knew what farming was, and that will make his job easier.
Paul held up a seed and asked, “What is this?”
Several of them said, “A seed.”
Paul said, “If I toss it into the forest or savannah, will it grow?”
They thought about it for a second and said, “Probably not.”
Then Paul asked, “What if I till the ground, put this seed in the soil, water it, keep the weeds away from it, and watch over it?
Again, several of them said, “It will almost certainly grow then.”
Paul said, “You and the children, including the orphans, are my seeds. My goal is to help all of you to be the best you can be. Like how a farmer tills ground and waters the seed. Now I have a question, how old do you think I am?”
One said, “19.”
Another said, “22.”
And one more said, “25.”
When he said 25, the rest looked at him and started saying, “The only people who get to be 25 are the witch doctors, there is no way he is that old.”
Paul said, “You are all wrong. I am thirty-one years old.” Paul’s announcement ended in stunned silence. Paul continued by saying, “The oldest man I ever learned under was ninety-three years old.” Paul wasn’t going to tell them the 93-year-old practiced martial arts all his life, but he only gave Paul advice once. Even then, he was so eaten up with arthritis he sat in a chair and watched Paul practice his martial arts, only to give advice. But Paul did learn under him.
Abilio was the first to speak, “How did he live so long?”
Paul said, “Well, this is why I am calling you my seeds. He lived a long time because he was properly cultivated by those who went before him. I have lived this long, and have many years ahead of me because I have been properly cultivated. Now I will cultivate you and the children, which will grant you a long life, as long as you do what you are told. As you learn, it will be your responsibility to cultivate those younger than you, or under your leadership, as I cultivate you. Do you accept this responsibility, or do you want to head back to the village?”
Paul might as well said, do you want to live or die? Because they all cried out, “We accept this responsibility! We will do whatever you say!”
Paul said, “Good! The first thing we are going to do is have everyone eat every day and multiple times a day. I hope that most days you will eat three times a day. Although there may be days where you only eat twice a day.”
Someone said, “How?”
Paul said, “Good question. I know techniques to keep bugs away from crops and techniques to keep food lasting much longer. One of those techniques is called canning. Although I will have to figure out a way to make glass jars to do this, once we have it done, we will be able to store fruits, vegetables, and meat for years easily.” Paul was using the word technique to get started moving their mindset away from spirits and magic.
