Raffie

July 1, 2010 Thursday


After dinner tonight, we were sitting here working on the lessons we are giving on Sunday when there was a knock on the door. I turned around and all I could see were the whites of someone’s eyes. It was Raphael, one of the aboriginal members of the branch. He had dropped by to let us know he was back in town and ask for a ride to church. He’s been gone about 2 weeks visiting family up north . He came in and sat down to talk a bit. He’s full-blooded aboriginal so his skin is as dark as it can be. He’s been a member about 5 years. He lives with his brother and is in his thirties. President Robinson thinks he’s a little slow mentally because he drank so much before he joined the church.
He told us about going turtle hunting with his family while he was north. They go out in a boat in the shallow waters. After they kill it, they “pull the intestines out” and then fill the inside with hot rocks, bury it in hot coals and wait for it to cook. We asked him what his people eat if they can’t get fish and stuff that lives by the river. Bats was the answer. We asked what part they ate, and he said they eat the fleshy parts by the bones. They hunt them at night with spears and kill them in the trees and sometimes right out of the air as they fly around. We also asked him what the aborigines who live inland eat. They eat snakes, lizards & possums.
He had mentioned he likes to play cards when he was here before. So we taught him the first round of Michigan Rummy. Orson won, Raffie had 60 points, and I lost with 185. He left after that so he could go visit his sister who lives down around the corner from us.