June 8-11

Hello again. It's actually around 7 30 in the morning on Sunday, so weird how that happens since y'all are still in(?) Saturday.. Anyways, so two nights ago after I blogged the first time I tried to take a shower in our banda, and about 4 minutes into it the lights turned off and the water got freeezing. So scary.  We'd found large slugs and spiders in the bathroom earlier so I was freakin' a bit, plus our window doesn't close so it was muuy frio.  I also couldn't find a towel, which now I realize I forgot to pack, so I had to put on the cover of my sleeping bag and knock on my neighbor's door asking for a towel.  After getting a towel, I ran over to the next banda (whose lights were on) (thank god there weren't any people outside) and finished my shower there.  I was a bit shaky when I came back and had to change in the dark, though I hadn't showered in three days so it actually felt quite nice to be clean.  The next day we had our goat roast, which was very interesting.  At about 4 the goat was brought to a tree and tied up, which was already pretty upsetting because she was crying and was completely doomed.  SO, after one of my fellow students (and hunter) Billy came over and started hitting the poor dear with an obnoxiously huge smile on his face, I began to yell out of pure instinct.  I only screamed at him a few times to stop hitting the goat and that he was being completely rude and disrespectful to the already terrorized little thing, and (kind of) quietly threatened him as well.  I tend to get extremely angry in these types of situations.  About an hour later, after the goat was completely killed, I surprisingly came outside to watch the skinning, as I thought, you know, you've already dissected a cat, why would it be any different? Yeah? No, not exactly.  I ended up staying the entire time, up until the point people started making goat skin bracelets, though I realized witnessing the dissection of an animal you've seen alive is much different than the dissection of one you've only seen as deceased.  I felt extremely queasy and unstable when I first walked out and the blood was still dripping from her neck, and her legs were tied to the tree so she was completely dangling.  Sorry for the details by the way.  SO, once I regained some balance after sitting down and eating a banana, it actually became quite interesting, as Daniel (one of the staff members) turned the gruesome experience into a somewhat educational one.  Following the discussion about her 4-chambered stomach, we encountered something completely unexpected.  She was pregnant. Oh boy. After removing the placenta, we found oout she was actually pregnant with  (fraternal) twins and that the fetuses were about a month old (out of a 3 month gestation period).  A few of us, including some staff, got pretty mad at the person who bought the animal, as you're not really supposed to buy female goats for meat.  PLUS, the continuation of her pregnancy, resulting in two perfectly healthy goats, could've provided either meat, milk, etc. for a few of the extremely poor families in Rhotia that we were surrounded by.  Ok I have to go to breakfast so this is to be continued :D