I just bought a sheep

Every time we get in the car to head to the capital our supervisor tells us not to buy a donkey. Here, buying a donkey is as easy as hitting one on the road. You hit it, you buy it.  And your chances of hitting a donkey are high since they have got to be some of the stupidest animals God ever created. They stand in the middle of the road and don’t budge as you approach them blaring your horn. I’ve actually seen them head from the side of the road towards the middle of the road right into a moving vehicle. They just close their eyes and keep walking forward acting as if they can’t see it, then it won’t happen. As stupid as donkeys are, sheep have got to be even more stupid.

And on that note, I didn’t buy a donkey on my way back from the capital the other day, but I did buy a sheep. I can’t blame it all on the sheep (it was definitely my fault)…but really, they are stupid animals. Hitting some type of animal seemed inevitable during my time here and I’ve narrowly missed them many, many times. But this time just wasn’t my lucky day. Well….really….it wasn’t the sheep’s lucky day.

The sheep did live, but I bet he wished he had died. The leg dangling from his side wasn’t a pretty picture and if I had had it my way, I would have had him slaughtered right then and there and put out of his misery. We would have called the neighbors and had a feast. But things here don’t work my way now do they? I was informed that I could give a small sum of money and they would get the leg fixed (yeah, right, them and what vet?) and that the elders in the community would meet and let me know if I owed them more money. We really think they were waiting to see if the sheep would die or not to demand more money for the sheep….we are pretty sure they aren’t using that money I gave for the leg.

We still haven’t heard the consensus from the elders, but it doesn’t look like we are going to get to have a neighborhood gathering and sheep slaughtering any time soon. As for me, my hope is that this is the only animal I purchase during my time here. One is probably enough.