dando patadas

A day of hanging out at home, I decided to document the kids working around the house. Or in this case, kicking the pig. This is Darlin, she's 3, and loves to kick the chancho.

Lord Of the Flies

I had to make the above reference because the image of the dangling pigs head above me on the morning of the 24th brought the book to my mind. It has been an up and down holiday season for me. Ultimately, I'd say more up than down. Although I am away from family for Christmas and New Year's, I still had great plans to celebrate in my community and in the pueblo down the mountain. There was going to be the fair and "Wheels of Chicago" and Secret Santa parties. It didn't happen for me, unfortunately. I'll begin with the 24th. I hiked up with my counterpart to his in-laws at 9:30 pm to prepare for a pig slaughtering. We fell asleep and woke up at 4:00 am and got to work. The 300 lb pig, half asleep, had no issue with us slowly tying up and binding his feet. However once we strapped his mouth shut he had a fit. At 4:30, with a full moon alumminating everything, Don Armando dug in and found the jugular, and I along with his father-in-law stood on the beast as it struggled and squeeled and made it's final death jolts until it bled out. The rest of the morning we skinned and butchered it, ready to have the meat cut in time for all the people rushing to get first dibs on some delicious pork. I have some pictures included here. I've included other pictures on my Flickr page and they are more for those with stronger stomachs, and will likely end up in a PETA brochure.

It was great to take part in something so important to the family's economic state. A pig is a beautiful investment in my community. Families purchase a piglet and raise it on corn and other food scraps, therefore has little input. But a full grown pig will sell for 100 to 200 dollars. This pig, for instance, made $140. Considering the average daily income on the mountain is $4 a day, a plump pig is a beautiful Christmas bonus for the family. And therefore I am making a plug for organizations like Heifer International (Heifer.org), that donate whole animals to needy families. An animal like a pig or chicken or turkey can become a very valuable source of money to a family that lives off the land with little money to spend on basic necessities of life.

All right, so the rest of my holiday season. I got giardia. I will let you google it to figure out what the symptoms and all are, but in a nutshell, it sucks. I was out for about five days in San Salvador, a taxi ride away from the clinic and a taxi ride away from the Peace Corps medical officer. So from the afternoon of the 24th till the 29th, I was either in a hammock, in the letrine, or in a hotel room, trying to rehydrate and get healthy. Campers, filter your water and don't get giardia. You don't want it.

I did get back in town in time for the battle of the bands, where two groups from my community competed and got 3rd and 4th places, out of 6. All the bands are the same, instrumentally. They have a basist, violinist, two guitarists, and two percussionists, and all play cumbia-style music.

Things are about to pick up substantially in my community because school starts up again and I will be participating significantly, with english classes and helping with school gardens. I just decided to take up my counterpart's offer to move into a house he is going to build. It will be a one-room adobe house near the center of the community. I can' wait! I will be helping with all of the building and manual labor. And it should be finished in less than two months, Ojala.

All until next time...