Pig.

Don't look at me like that

As the pig slowly bled out, Alex Girl and I sipped our coffee and contemplated our mortality. We woke up just before four am to the screaming of my alarm and what turned out to be the screaming of my host family’s pig. The sounds erupting from next door were enough to convince anyone that the pig must have known it’s end was eminent. If you are lucky enough to have never been anywhere near a pig, let me explain something. Pigs are very skittish creatures, always in fear. Perhaps this has been genetically ingrained into their DNA, because they inherently know that they are delicious.  If you approach a pig it may just snort and turn away, but try to touch it and things quickly get out of hand. Even if you are just moving the creature from one place to another, it will make such screaming noises as you have never heard. I could be wrong, but that is not what I remember Wilber sounding like in Charlotte’s Web.

The other white meat

I have watched grown men spend the greater part of an afternoon unsuccessfully trying to capture a pig gone rogue. Pigs are crafty and surprisingly mobile. Movies make pigs out to seem as though they are innocent bystanders in the farm life ecosystem. I do not believe this for a second. You can tell just by looking into their eyes that they are trying to (usually unsuccessfully) hatch some kind of plot. Speaking of their eyes, pig eyes give me the heebie-jeebies. They look a little too much like human eyes. It is unnerving.

So far it may sound as though I have something against these animals, but that is far from the truth, really I just don’t want to ever have to look them in the eye. Perhaps it is my own guilt, my own knowing of what is to become of these animals that makes it so difficult for me to look them in the eye. But seeing as I do not have the same troubles with cows or chickens, I find it hard to believe that that is the reason. I will have to contemplate this more.

Meow-Meow wants some pork

By the time Alex and I had risen from bed, made some coffee and tossed on some clothes, my host dad (Orlando) and his cousin (Ariel) had the pig in a makeshift rope harness in the front yard. Ariel tested the sharpness of the recently honed kitchen knife on his thumb as Orlando pulled over an old semi truck tire that would be used as a makeshift butcher’s block. Alex and I stood in the peanut gallery, close enough to see what was going on but far enough away to not be in anyone’s way. As we were watching the two men position the pig so Orlando was sitting on top of it, I told Alex about the revealing new information I had recently learned about Ariel. According to my host mom, Ariel loves to kill. He is blood thirsty, so whenever someone needs something killed, Ariel is the one they call. Unwanted puppies? Check. Cute fluffy rabbits? Check. Pig ready for dinner? Super check. I felt as though I had gained an entirely new view of Ariel, who comes across as a friendly, though introverted kind of guy.

The knife was ready, and so were the men. So the carotid artery was found and the pig was killed. It took about twenty minuets for the pig to completely bleed out, and it put up a hell of a struggle trying to save it’s own life. But in the end, as it seized one last time, Orlando confirmed the pig’s inevitable death.

Pork- It's what's for dinner

My host family purchased the pig from someone who told them that it was pregnant. They do not have a lot, so it was a good investment. Unfortunately after waiting almost nine months, and no adorable litter of piglets popped out they decided it was time to eat her. Orlando took this opportunity to invite anyone who had ever paid him a favor for dinner. Many people came and went though out the afternoon, eating and drinking, joking around and discussing this year’s corn crop.  This is where Orlando is in his element. He loves being the one that is providing the good time and good food.

The day wound down as the afternoon rains arrived. I am not sure I have ever seen my Salvadoran family as content as they were that afternoon. It always amazes me when something as simple as a pig can boost the self worth of a family and bring together a community.