Vacation, Power, Blood

This weekend saw quite a bit of excitement. Megan and Rachael (WorldTeach)
had planned to come to Divundu for a change (rather than me going to Rundu).
The plan was to come for a visit, then head a few kms away to Chris' place
on the Kavango River. Chris is a Peace Corps volunteer who's been here 1.5
years. Well, naturally, the girls got delayed in Rundu do to a
never-leaving hike. So they didn't arrive until dark. This meant we had to
start walking straight away to get to Chris'. We walked and walked, and
were finally picked up to be taken the rest of the 5 or 6 kms. We arrived
in a veritable paradise. First of all, the house is freshly painted in
lively colors, and all the windows are in tact. The entrance faces the
river, and the front porch has a lovely hammock to gaze out from. Inside,
there's an actual living room with a futon! And a proper table and chair
set to eat. The kitchen is spotless! And has an oven, drawers, counters,
cabinets, you name it! Both bedrooms have real beds and actual closets!
OH, there's a shower AND a tub! .And hot water!! Oh the luxury. I'm not
exaggerating. We were all running around like we'd never seen any of this
stuff before. (And to think it's only been a month.)

Chris and Justin (another Peace Corps) were wonderfully gracious hosts. We
had dinner and chatted the night away. We finally decided "movie night"
should commence and got down to choosing from a library of well over a
hundred movies. THEN, the girls had brought chocolate chip cookie mix
("American style"..whatever that means..it's what the box said.) And Justin
decided to make cinnamon rolls, from scratch! Oh my goodness, all the
calories I didn't have over the course of the week were had Saturday night.
(I managed to still be hungry on Sunday though.)



We woke up on Sunday to find that the power was off (turns out it was out
for the entire region). Never fear, breakfast would still be had. We dug a
pit in the sand, gathered wood, lit a fire and cooked up fried eggs and then
water for coffee. Mmmmmmm. Thanks again Chris and Justin!!



We hiked back to Divundu proper (in the back of a police truck.with bars and
everything) and the girls headed for home. I returned to my place to find
that yes, the power was still off. So people were cooking outside. The
kids, however, had not been fed all day (and wouldn't get fed until very
late that evening.) So, I passed the time with lesson planning and kindle
reading.



Around lunchtime, I returned to the house to find a goat being led into the
yard by a boy. I asked Mr. T. what was going on and he said, "I bought a
goat." I knew he'd been wanting to get one as he asked to store some of the
meat in my fridge. But I was confused.did we have to keep the goat for a
while before someone would come and get it to be killed? Then I saw the boy
brandish a small kitchen knife (5"). I immediately ran for my camera. A
couple of other boys then tied the goat to our back fence, and swept its
legs out from under it so it was on the ground. The knife boy then just
sawed through its neck. Blood was spurting everywhere. It took quite a
while, unfortunately. I thought that sort of thing was more or less
instant. But it's not. I'd say it took a good 2 minutes. The thing was
kicking and gurgling, while the blood was spilling on the ground. I've of
course seen large dead animals before (worked up close and personal on
them). But I guess I'd never seen anything that big be killed. It was
pretty horrific actually. I didn't get queezy or anything, but it was still
pretty shocking.



They then strung the thing up by its legs from a tree, and proceeded to
artfully skin it. By this time it was well past my lunchtime, so I went
inside (subsequently missing the gutting process).



Now, you'd think Mr. T. would have waited till the power was back on to have
the goat killed, given that it should be refrigerated immediately. But
alas, no. The meat sat in plastic bags for another several hours, flies
buzzing around of course. And in case you're wondering, no, I will not be
partaking of any of Mr. T.'s goat. Oh, I asked, the goat cost him $200NAM
($25US). Now, SOUTH of the red line, where there are veterinary control
procedures in place, the same goat would have cost $600NAM ($75US).



The stray dogs swarmed around the yard for the next several hours, and
likely through the night. I just put it as far from my mind as I could.
Amazing how the smell of blood must travel.



The power came back on around 7pm, to many cheers. I was particularly happy
as Matt was due to call at 8pm, and no power meant no cell service. So I
still got to have a good long chat and tell him all about my very exciting
weekend.