Today I Killed a Cow and Beat Up His Friends

Mon. June 5th, 2006 (Day 4)
As a first day, this one was not exactly reassuring. Anna and Sara both had to return to Quito during the day because Sara´s passport had been stolen. The bus going to Quito leaves Las Tolas at 6:15 a.m. which means you need to leave the cabins around 5:00 a.m. if you want to be sure to catch the bus. I didn´t see them in the morning because they left really early.

The home of the caretaker Francisco and his family is a the top of a hill and the cabins are at the bottom. I went up for breakfast around 7:00 a.m. As predicted by Anna and Sara my breakfast was a big glass of milk straight from the cows that are milked in the morning and fried dough that you dip in sugar. I could practically feel my arteries clogging. I wasn´t really able to drink the milk and I only managed to eat a few pieces of dough because I could feel my stomach becoming very angry.

The night before I had been instructed to give some medicine to Francisco for the cows. I asked this morning how the cows were doing and was rather surprised by the answer. He told me that one of the cows died this morning. I asked him what he wanted to do about it and I received no answer. What Francisco did do was reach for his machete and tell me to follow him.

At this point I was becoming a bit worried. I don´t consider myself a paranoid woman, but being led into the jungle by a man I don´t know, who is carrying a machete, made me rather nervous. He led me down to the bottom of this really steep hill to where this cow´s body was wedged in a really awkward position underneath this log. I asked Francisco why the cow had died and he replied that it had gotten sick and couldn´t walk straight. To this day I still don´t know if the cow died because it was sick or because it fell because it was sick. I feel it is important to note that I was served this meat for the next three days and when I said I didn´t think it was a good idea to eat the meat of a sick cow, everyone pretended not to hear me.

I then helped lug the body from under the log and tie it up with rope to surrounding trees. Francisco then began to skin it and cut the meat off of the body. At this point, the rest of the ten cows had come to gather around us. One of the cows began making really angry mooing noises. Soon the others joined in. I think the cows thought that we had killed it or something. While Francisco was cutting meat off of the dead cow the others began to inch forward Francisco was forced to keep shooing them away. Half way through, Francisco left to go get more bags for the meat. I was actually afraid one would charge me or something and I said as much to Francisco, so he gave me a stick and told me to hit any of the cows that came too close.

Francisco came back a few minutes later with more bags and his wife and kids. Apparently, butchering a dead cow is a family affair in Ecuador. Together they cut most of the meat off of the cow. My job was to hold the carcas in place while they cut the meat. At this point the animal had no skin and its muscles were covered in this bubbly white stuff, which I got all over my hands.

The cows had died with its eyes open. I tried to close them more than once, but it didn´t work. I spent the morning being watched by its dead, dead eyes.

I have no idea what I am doing here.