Saturday 27 January 2007

Animals (One for the neighbours)

Dive to the bottom of the pecking order on camp and you'll find the
animals, all free range and pretty rangy. Cockerels crow every morning
as
a warm up act to the pigeons dancing the rumba on the tin roof of my
room. the hens are usually followed by a splattering of chicks who
scratch around chirping and clucking. There is one brood who hang
around The Brotherhood whose littlest chick has a broken leg. I call
her 'broken leg chick', i try and find some crumbs somewhere to feed her
as have always been a sucker for an under-chick but her future does not look rosy.
There are ducks too, dusty, scraggy things, some of the birds have
remnants of tethers 'round their legs, but i get the feeling they do go
home to roost. The
goats do too, quiet trotters who pass in groups as if on their way to
the library or a political meeting, they rarely bleat and find innocuous places to rest, I saw a mother and 3 kids fast asleep in the front bucket of a huge digger. I've eaten 'meat' meat once since
arriving, we were told it was cow but i have a suspicion that my
bleating friends are now adding to the digestive sagas I have every
day, never again. There are loads of dogs here, awww! anyone who knows me, knows how much I love the hound. They all look the same; long nosed mutts, tan, white and some
brown - snoopy type ears hang over their eyes and, as all the animals
here, small. rarely do you see a dog on a lead, or even one following
an owner, they just do their own thing and then go home, if they have
one to go to. i did see a bigger dog, black and tan, a healthy looking
fella in his prime, he did have an air of top dog about him and the way
he was muttering "Who'd da Daddy?" suggested to me he was. The cats are
small too, big wide eyes and slender bodies, always pregnant, and like
all the animals on camp they have as different a culture as their human neighbors. If you make kissy cooing sounds to a dog or cat back home, 9/10 you'll get a positive response, they raise a tail, soften and come over for some lovin', but here any noises of affection are greeting with non-plussed
indifference. I guess they're just not use to strangers, or anyone
really petting them, well, they're not pets but commodities to be bred
and eaten, yes folks, it seems when food is scarce a hot dog is exactly
what is says on the tin. Now, I am one of the biggest dog lovers in the
world,
but I've seen little cruelty towards animals (but it probably happens),
how they're killed and some eaten of course I haven't seen, but when
you live in an
environment of hardship the dogs join the queue. if i don't remain
pragmatic and let my over sensitive empathy kick in, well i'd be useless
here. Anyway, back to the animals; I've only seen one rat and that was
dead as a coaster, seen more rodents on the platform of Morden
tube, guess the cats and dogs take care of them. Cockroaches make a
regular appearance, but most are small and work alone, one scuttled
into my dirty pants pile, sothat'll save a call to Rentokil. there are an abundance of birds, from magpie looking things to
vultures, but as I don't know their names, difficult to report, however
i did see a small flock of Little Egrets on a roundabout in Accra,
having spotted a rare trio of them in the park next to my home I was
well chuffed, I think they do make the trip there and back - wonder if
we'd met before then? The lizards are cool, they scuttle about all over
the shop, little house ones inside, (although one in my room would be a
no, I think), the males have bright orange heads and orange markings and
like the female are a dusty green/grey in colour, they stop to look at
you to do a few push ups then move on. just today i watched two succour
up a wall and wait outside an ant hole to snap up any unsuspecting
passers by. they chomped on dozens of ants before word got down the
hole that 'God' was taking sacrifices again and that it was probably
best to stay in and watch telly for a while. Finally, we (me, and
volunteer pals Holly and Pen) have inherited from Simon and Hannah, a
young
man by the name of Emmanuel, he's about 18 but looks 14, has a simple
intelligence, and a comic high voice and gait - he has
the heart of a poet and for this culture, a rare love of animals. He
has become our 'friend' and likes to visit us often, he's kind of like
a nice stalker, bless him, and he can be a great source of help for
camp info and protocol. Emmanuel had a dog but, "it was killed, I liked
that dog, every time I call him, his tail wag, wag, wag!", he has a cat
called Bruno which is never around to see and most impressively he has
maybe a dozen rabbits. He has made three hutches at the back of his
home, and has let nature take it's course from a couple he was left by
a man who went back to Liberia. they are white albinos and cute as
hell. He goes into the bush to find green leaves for them. they look
healthy enough and he does let them run around outside in an enclosed
area now and then. He has locks on the hutches and carries the keys
with him at all times but still, it's amazing that no one has carried
the hutches off to a waiting pot of boiling water and onions.

1 comment:

Pauline said...

Hello Dystin, enjoying the blogs-especially this one (as a neighbour!) You're doing a fab job, we're all very proud of you. Holly would, I'm afraid, currently make a meal for an entire family-she's missing you, but eating well!
x