Remember that time I told you that I was biking back to
village in the middle of the night because I left the regional house too
early? No? Well, go back and read my blog! Ok, now that you’ve re-familiarized yourself,
time for an update! So I was walking my
bike in the pitch black considering all the bad things that could happen. I’m too far from the park for there to be
lions, right?
Well, when I get back to village from the Pecadom Plus
project, it’s dinner time. As I sit
there waiting, my host brother comes out with a plate full of beef. Now, beef is a rare commodity out here. See, cows have a weird economic value in
Pular culture. They’re sort of used as a store of wealth. So when people
have money, they buy cows. When they
need money, they sell cows. But they
never kill, cook, and eat cows. I guess
it makes sense in an abstract way. Anyway, this is why I am
confused to be handed a plate of beef.
“Why did you guys kill a cow?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” was the response.
“Well we’re eating beef”
“Oh yeah, we totally didn’t kill the cow, les hyens did.”
(Ok, this this
conversation is in French. I don’t know
what “hyens” means, but it sounds a lot like Ian. I was wondering if Ian Hennesy had come back
to slaughter our cows. Occum’s razor
ruled this out though. After a few
minutes I realize it sounds like “hyena” and confirm that this is what they
mean.)
So apparently the people in my village heard the death-cries
of the recently dispatched cow. They ran
over and all the commotion scared off the hyena. They saw the dead cow, thought “ehh, why
not”, cooked it and ate it. One might
question the wisdom of eating a cow that was killed by a hyena, but I ate it
and didn’t sprout fur or anything, so I think it’s fine.
It didn’t hit me until later though. Remember that one time I pushed my bike
through the darkness for a couple of hours trying to tell myself there was
nothing out there. Yeah, there were
things out there.
There were hyenas.
And not the fun kind:
be prepared.
No comments:
Post a Comment