I am an animal lover, and it's a good thing. I live in the capital city of a European nation, and yet I have more farm animal experiences here than I had while I was living in a rural community in Tennessee! Today I saw six dead chickens on the way to school. While that does win the how-many-animals-did-you-see-on-the-way-to-work-this-morning contest, it does not represent the true range of animals I encounter. My favorite is a donkey that pulss a cart driven by a man who looks like a farmer, but must live in the same community as the GDQ School. Moat mornings I see him as I gaze out my thrid story classroom window. Last week, he passed me as I was late getting to school. The clip-clop of the donkey's hooves behind me caused me to turn around and smile. I'm sure the man thought I was crazy for smiling at a donkey, as he drove a medieval cart down Don Bosko Avenue in the midst of modern traffic. I've seen vomiting dogs, cats scrounging through garbage, and a few days ago I saw a mouse crossing the street the same way the Albanians do it- at an all-out run. It was actually kind of cute. The unfortuante ones are the chickens. They are tonight's dinner. Nearly every day I see a man carrying two dead chickens by their feet in his left hand. They hang there, feathers still attached, wings akimbo. One day he had a turkey in his right hand as well. That must have been a special occasion. I'd rather see the befeathered postmortem poultry than the skinned goats hanging out of garbage bags zooming by on mopeds driven by young Ilyrian couriers. On a stranger note, I did see a monkey last Saturday when I was catching the bus to QTU. He was on a leash, climbing all over his owner and up a lamp post. I'm waiting to see a bear on a chain. Not an unusual request in Tirana.
No comments:
Post a Comment