Riding Caribou | Water Buffalo

Kitty mountain the caribou for her very short ride.
Photo by Mikel Iriarte

As soon as I discovered the water buffalo (locally known as caribou) in the small river near our base at the hospital, I wanted to try riding one. I witnessed men casually riding them down the road from fields to watering holes so I knew it was possible. Knowing that it was probably not going to happen, I made a joke out of it and encouraged Carlo, one of the Filipino volunteers on the project, to find a friendly water buffalo to ride. He never did find one.

Petting the water buffalo was the closest I came to riding it.
Photo by Mikel Iriarte

Diana, from Portugal, had the most beautiful way of pronouncing buffalo as BUFE-a-low. She had already given it a try - getting poked in the posterior by one of its horns before managing to secure a seat on the animal. This had the potential to be my 'running of the bulls' moment.

So, on our moving day, Kitty, decided she was going to find the owner of the buffalo in the river and give it a ride and I tagged along to have my turn, too.

Myself with Kitty and the caribou's caretaker in Kananga.
Photo by Mikel Iriarte

The woman, who was only the caretaker of the water buffalo was reluctant to let us try since she didn't want the owner to find out that she was allowing us to play with the buffalo. We convinced her to let us do a photo op only on the buffalo - just Kitty and I.

She came along the river bank and dragged the beast out of his pleasant spot in the water and pulled him along side a large felled tree trunk so that we would have a step. Kitty mounted up and, like a rodeo, began bouncing along on his back. I think Kitty was a little surprised that he started waltzing around the tree stump and it didn't take long before she fell off his back on the ground. Watching the water buffalo's wiliness, I determined that my travel insurance may not view a water buffalo incident very kindly, but settled up next to him to pet his prickly and sparse hair on his back.

We laughed so hard. The caretaker laughed right along with us. It was some salve on the overworked soul that afternoon. I think everyone really enjoyed their time and the hysteria of it all. We posed for a few photos and we gave the lovely caretaker a gift in pesos for her time and the risk she incurred for allowing us to ride without the owner's permission.