Peace was chased by a chicken

Animals are everywhere in Uganda- goats in front of the bar claiming and protecting mounds of dirt, chickens run freely, little boys chase cows for fun, the government gave out piglets for new births. People cultivate animals on the small plots of land at their homes (incidentally, a little FYI courtesy of my pal Lisandro- people have not cultivated a new animal in the past 2,000 years). Because of this prevalence of animals here, the children also assume that I too own animals in the states and are often surprised when I tell them I don’t have cows- although being from Nebraska and living in California- this question seems to be a prevalent one in my life.

At the school in the west, I was assigned the task of editing letters the children wrote to sponsors in America. (Think, Dear Ndugu). Most of the letters mentioned the activities and many happenings of their family’s goat- whether it was missing, had a kid, had eaten their homework, etc. It was quite nice to be able to correct someone else’s grammar for a bit instead of everyone correcting mine.

As for the chickens- I watched one eat a snake at my host family’s house- can you say “free range”? The school also had chickens as an income generating project, and one had chicks. I was asked if I wanted to hold one. Then a child, named Peace, was sent in to get a chick for me. Most of the children have an English name as well as an African name. Each child has a different African name other than their parent’s so it’s often difficult to distinguish family lines based on names. But back to Peace- the mother hen was not happy about that decision- thus my new catch phrase: Peace was chased by a chicken.