Anna and the Crocodile

This is the story that Anna (our creche teacher) penned, based on her experience  last November of fighting off a crocodile while fishing in the Limpopo River.

My name is Anna Munzhelele.  I was born on the 5^th of October 1973, at Musina Hospital.  I am 38 years old.  I’m the fifth born of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Munzhelele.  I live in Limpopo Province, which is in South Africa.  I live at Bennde Mutale village near Kruger National Park.

It was on the 10^th of November 2011.  When I went to the river called Limpopo for fishing with my friends.  It’s about 20 kilometers from the village to the river.

When we arrived at the river, we started fishing.  While we were fishing, I felt a punch on my stomach.  I looked and I saw that it was a crocodile.  I was not scared of it.  I told my friends to come and help me.  A crocodile had attacked me.  They both ran away outside the water and looked at me.  I started to push the crocodile and gave it a punch on its nose.  As you know that a crocodile is a ferocious animal.  It was still having a piece of my flesh from my stomach.  I keep on fighting with it and it left my stomach.  It touched my let again.  I continued to fight but the crocodile fought very hard.  I opened its mouth using my hands.  And it cut my thumb and another piece of flesh on my leg.  When I saw that I distracted it, and it had swam away from me.  

I got outside of the water, walking not running, because I was badly damaged like in war.  I asked my friends to bandage me using some clothes that we have.  After that, I walked by myself from the river until to the road for about 15 kilometers.  It’s where I got a car to transport me to the clinic named Masisi.  From the clinic the nurses transferred me to Donald Fraser Hospital.  I spent one month, two weeks at the hospital.  And the doctor sent me back to the clinic again until I was recovered.