I would like to start this article explaining the warning over graphic content and why I feel it is important to show the content that I have. In this blog entry there will be a video of a cow being killed and photo's of other dead animals that have been killed for the festival of Eid. If you do not wish to see this content then It may be best to skip this blog entry, however, I would recommend persevering. As someone who eats meat myself I would find it massively hypocritical to have looked away as the cow was killed as this was not and will not be the first animal that has died so that I can eat meat. If you have issues with the way that the animals are treated and killed then I would like to remind you that this is their country and their culture and we have to respect the way that they do things even if it is different to what we are used to, I assure you they don't want to cause anymore pain to the animals than me or you would. Anyways let the blog begin: Today we left for the office, and on the way, we passed quite a few cows that had been slaughtered in the street. One of the men let me cut a slice off the cow. It is a lot tougher than I thought and after my hand was covered in blood. They are killing the animals for a certain Muslim festival that marks the end of Ramadan called Eid al-Fitr. The pictures show a cow from the moment it is slaughtered to its transformation into piles of meat that are shared with the local families. As the community can’t afford to slaughter an animal each, they all put their money together and buy a cow between them. In the office today, we decided our roles for the next few months. This involved a lot of shouting from everyone. I was given the media team as I could use my experience I already have with my website and blog to teach the others in the team, we then found out what schools and co-operatives we would be working with. My team would be working in a boarding school called FSTC Kuta. This is actually located outside of Gwada, so I will have the opportunity to see another community and the area around this town. For the co-operative, we will be working with children in the community to discourage drug use. And rehabilitation. Thursday is market day in Gwada, the town is packed with men woman and children selling pretty much everything. We looked around, and the first thing I bought was some sugar cane, it looks like bamboo, but instead of being hollow it is full of sweet fleshy wood that you chew and spit out. After this, Jack D and I went to buy some white material to make into traditional clothes for Eid tomorrow. On the way back to the office there was a cow about to be killed. I decided to stay and watch. As uncomfortable as it was it was killed with respect. For the rest of the day, we waited for the project officer and two other ICS leaders to arrive. We had to wait from 11am to 4pm for these people to arrive and when they did... after a very long wait all they said was hello and left. We waited 5 hours for a 5-minute conversation. Missing the World Cup match that we wanted to see. It did give us time to look around the market, and I bought myself a catapult. It was a lot more powerful than I expected, limiting how much I could actually use it without hurting anyone! After they left, I ran an exercise camp, getting the other VSO members to do press ups, sit ups, wall sits and planking. My training in the army helped run this session and found it nice to be on the other side. After this, we headed home!
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AuthorThis blog is written by one of the owners of the site; Alex Hood. Currently studying English Literature at Brighton University and was given the amazing opportunity to work with VSO in Nigeria for three months over the summer. Archives
August 2018
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