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I had this dream during my second year working at St. Mark's Youth and Conference Centre in Saffron Walden. It was based there. If you've been to the centre, you may understand this a little more than those who haven't been!
St. Mark's College is based oon two courtyards : one for residents, and one for staff. They also have local youth groups and such use the facilities with the staff. One popular activity is the adventure course (or assult course, or thing like the army has for training purposes) on the back field.
One evening, we were expecting one such local youth group in for one such session. (I forget which group it was now, but I think it was from "Bell College" who have children from around the world join us occassionally for a session.) Anyway, it was approaching 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when I saw a lion enter the resident's courtyard. (Note : there was no-one in residence at the time.) It was a rather small tame looking lion, but a lion all the same. I followed it cautiously as it made it's way to the adventure course. It must have spent half an hour there while I got increasingly anxious about the expected arrival of the group! (Have you ever seen a lion on an adventure course?? It's quite a sight! OK, so I can't remember exactly what it did on it, but I remember it being by the cargo net!)
After a while, I somehow managed to persuade the lion away from the adventure course. Unfortunately, the group were just arriving at the time! Anyway, we kept the children somewhat calm in the courtyard, while I persuaded the lion into one of the rooms. (To be a bit more specific, it was Room 9, the disabled room, just because it was nearest!) I can't remember what happened after that, but I still remember how tame the lion seemed!! I told this story to our South African volunteer Miena at the time, and she said I obviously haven't ever met a lion if I thought it was tame!!! Never mind :)
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