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Hitting the Road with SureFire
You've packed your favorite sweater, your swimsuit, a rain coat, and plenty of clean undies. Now don't forget your SureFire.
| SureFire Essential Tool for Peace Corps Volunteer |
I'm a 24-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia, living at the most remote site in the country, deep in the Chokweland bush of Northwest Province. The natives call me "Tuuta," which means "giant bush rat." My primary
assignment is teaching aquaculture but I try to help in every way I can: business/agriculture/forestry/AIDS/nutrition workshops, starting a nutrition center and a library, establishing a condom distribution center, and
teaching a daily Hung-Gar style Kung Fu class. Anyway, I just wanted to take a little time to compliment you and thank you for making such fine lights-and to give you a story or two you might want to use on your website.
My SureFire C2 Centurion® is one of the single most useful and crucial tools I've got out here in the land of no electricity, where I'm incredibly isolated, and where things can, and often do, go unexpectedly wrong. I
awoke around midnight one night to the sound of one of the many village drunks screaming like a lunatic in Chokwe outside of my mud-brick, grass-thatched, dirt-floored Chokwe hut. I got out of bed and went outside, my "luponga"
(machete) in one hand and my C2 in the other. I gave him a blast from my C2 right in the eyes, and he screamed, stumbling, and shielding his eye as he ran away, shouting: "Don't light me!" in perfect English. Doubt he ever even saw my "luponga."
Another time, I sat on a bus (named "Here Comes the Lion") going from Solwezi to my village. Twenty-two hours and nine breakdowns later, at 2 a.m., the bus completely gave out 30 kilometers from my village. I'd run out of water, and the
160 crowded passengers (approximately 60 could have reasonably fit on Here Comes the Lion) were all getting a mysterious cough, one after the other. After it was announced that we'd be sleeping alongside the dirt road, in the rainy season,
it looked like a mob situation was brewing.
I made the decision that walking the 30 km home with my 40 lbs. of supplies was by far the safest, most reasonable option, so, C2 in hand, I took off "pa maulu" (on foot), everyone protesting that I shouldn't go — until I showed them
my C2, which threw light a lot further than "Here Comes the Lion's" headlights. Then they all went, "Ooooohhhh." I walked alone through 30 km of rural Zambia, my C2 lighting the way and keeping the wild dogs following me, growling all
the while, at a reasonable distance. One blast of the C2 turned them away whenever they got too close for comfort. I also shined it on some obnoxious monkeys screaming at me from the game management area-the C2 shut them up good and fast.
Six hours later, I was safely home, thanks to my C2.
Zambia is home to many deadly snakes, including the infamous black mamba. My C2 is an essential snake-spotting device whenever I'm walking the bush paths at night. It's done a great job of keeping me from stepping on the critters and has
defused many a potentially deadly-snake situation.
The Type III Mil-Spec anodizing on my C2 is amazing-I've abused that light like nothing else, and it still looks and works exactly like it did the day I got it. I have a lot of fun signaling/illuminating distant Chokwe friends and
neighbors at night. The first couple times I surprised them with my C2, people shouted "motorcar!" and fled, thinking my bright light was a pair of approaching headlights.
Anyway, thanks for making such a great, useful tool I can be proud to carry, and know that you're making one Peace Corps volunteers life in Zambia much safer and easier. Your light is helping me to get a lot of good work done out
here. My only regret is that I didn't bring an extra SureFire flashlight with me.
Thanks again!
Jason C. (Tuuta)
Mufumbwe, Zambia
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