somehow this reminds me of snow white...
On the morning of February 6th, the day of my celebrated birthday, I got up early, heavy with anticipation of the big day. Ever since I missed the Christmas pig being killed, I had wanted to see a pig get killed, and so I had asked for just that for my birthday; to get to watch a pig get killed. Now the day had finally come and I was totally psyched. It was raining pretty hard that day, so I got my jacket on, for the first time since we’d arrived in Uganda. I got my rubber boots on and was ready to go. Half an hour later we were on the road headed for Hope to see my pig be slaughtered, skinned, cleaned, and cooked.
We got there and saw ‘Mr. Piggy’, as Peter the Painter called him, laying still on the ground, and our immediate thought was, oh no we’re too late, but then we saw it twitch and that was a relief to find that it wasn’t already dead. We got out of the car and went into Hope, where I was greeted by Pastor Prossy, who sang “Happy Birthday” to me followed by “How Old Are You Now?” sung to the same tune, which was a little weird, because I am used to just happy birthday. But hey this is Africa and they do it different here. After being sung to, I went over to see the pig, which was hog tied lying on the ground. Then I hung out with the Hope kids for about half an hour until it was time for the main event.
I watched as Mr. Piggy was led into the goat stalls, where a thin layer of sheet metal was lying on the ground, followed by a group of about ten guys, my dad and I among them. I can only imagine what the pig was thinking, “Man this is so much better than my last home, I mean I even have my own posy.” Little did it know its morbid fate: death. When everyone was in the goat stall, the tools of the pig’s demise were taken out. The first, a silver knife, dull as could be, was handed to me before being given to Peter, who decided that it was too dull. Because it was too dull they decided to get a cabinet filer to sharpen it. Once it was only a lot dull, they proceeded to bring out the next tool: a dull, rusty machete. Now that all were there and mildly sharp, we were ready to start.
The reason for all the guys that came into the stall became much more clear as we started: killing a pig was a team effort, a couple of the guys held the back legs, a couple held the front legs, and Peter held the ears. I held my breath as the event finally started. Peter took the silver knife and started sawing the pig’s neck, at which point the pig made the most grotesque squeal I had ever heard, like it was well dying, which it was. Blood squirted out as peter continued to cut. I had to jump back to keep from getting covered in pig blood. Peter didn’t even flinch, in fact he started singing happy birthday to me, which was actually quite hilarious. He proceeded to cut all the skin around the head and all the muscle surrounding the neck, then he handed me the knife and told me “For some snaps” which I thought meant snap its spine, but what he really meant was for pictures. Anyways after he got the knife back he took the machete and broke the spine. After the body stopped twitching, he put the pig’s head in a bucket, and brought some boiling hot water and poured it on the pig, and then they started skinning it. Peter used the machete, Bosco used the silver knife, and some of the younger boys used razor blades. At this point I left for a little bit because it smelled pretty bad. With all the hair that was wet and it stunk. When I got back they had finished shaving it and they had begun removing the insides. This part was actually very cool, because it was like a biology lesson, instead of dissecting a fetal pig we dissected a grown pig. I got to see the intestines, the liver, the lungs, and I got to hold the heart.
After the whole pig episode was done, I went over to the Stirns house for a while to wait for the pig to be ready to eat. About two hours later we came back and they had all the food ready for us to eat, pork, rice, and beans. It was very good actually. The best part of the whole ordeal was seeing how happy it made the kids at Hope. They get pork, maybe once or twice a year, and so this was super special for them, and I know every bit of that pig got eaten by those kids.
I have to say that this year, my birthday was definitely the most unique birthday I’ve ever had. Most years for my birthday I plan on getting tons of gifts, and money and things for me, and every year it’s all about me. But this year it was different; this year it was all about the Hope kids. The thing about gifts, money, and things that I want for me is that they always break, are lost, or spent, but the gift I was given this year was not one of this earth it was one of giving to others. My birthday this year was probably one of my best birthdays yet, and the theme of my birthday this year was that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
