I’ve
grown to truly love the village life. It is quite, peaceful, and simple. While I do my best to appreciate the day-to-day
pleasures of living in the village (our kind neighbors, the village animals,
the amazing sun set), after a year of living here the honeymoon period has worn
off and I no longer am amazed by each and every little thing. However when
something out of the ordinary does happen it without a doubt proves to be
another unforgettable experience.
I had just finished a really nice
day at Tanka Class and was walking home form the center of the village. Up
ahead on the path I saw several of the younger children all gathered around
something. I could tell that they were picking this ‘something’ up and throwing
it but could not tell what this ‘something’ was. As I got closer I could see
that it was something living, so I called out for them to stop and put the
animal down. When I approached the children they were all crouched around a
small bird. I stared at the creature for several seconds before realizing what
it was, a baby owl. The owl was no bigger then the size of my hand and was
looking up at me with the most beautiful big, round, yellow eyes. I stared at it
in awe, watching it twist it’s head in circles and bob up and down. I didn’t
know what to do, the only thing I had heard about baby birds was that if they
had been touched by humans, which it clearly had, that the mother would not
take it back.
I clearly couldn’t leave it
here with these children who were treating it like a toy. So I began asking
questions: “who found it?” “Where did you find it?” “ How long have you had
it?” Eventually i was able to get a the answers, however these answers didn’t
prove to be to helpful, “Sahara.” “A field” “one hour.”
Feeling like I had no other option, I picked
up the owl and told them we would go to my house and try to figure out what to
do. So there I was, walking home with an
owl in my hand, and a train of little children behind me. All of a sudden one of the little boys ran
over to me with a grasshopper in his hands and raised it up to feed the
owl. The owl grabbed the insect and
swallowed it whole. Once we arrived at my house all the kids wanted to feel the
owl, so they began running around catching grasshoppers. I realized this was a
perfect opportunity to collect food to last for a while. So as the kids brought
back grasshoppers I asked them to put them in a small bowl. Of course as soon
as they placed them in the bowl the insect would simply jump out. Learning
quickly, the children began tearing the legs off the bugs so they couldn’t get
away. It is so unusual for me to be around children who are so comfortable with
this kind of behavior. It has been something I have been struggling with all
year: throwing rocks at dogs, tossing around a baby owl, tearing the legs off
grasshoppers, these are behaviors I do not often see by children in the west.
Regardless, at this moment I was thankful for this desensitized behavior,
because I certainly didn’t want to kill all these grasshoppers, and I needed
food to feed the owl I had just adopted.
After
the children dispersed I began researching all I would need to know about
raising an owl. After hours of reading
different articles, my research all told me two things: either contact your
nearest wildlife specialist, or return the owl to where you found it
(apparently owls are not like other birds and the mother will take the baby owl
even after its been touched by humans.) Seeing as there is no wildlife
specialist for 100 miles, I clearly only had one option. At this point it was
to late to try and return the owl so it would have to wait till the morning. I
made a small bed made out of a bucket and rice pealing’s. I put the owl in the
bucket and brought it up to the balcony
outside my room so the snakes would not get him. As soon as I put the bucket down, the owl
hopped up and perched on the rim of the bucket and fell asleep. I too fell asleep, however was not asleep
long. I quickly learned what it meant to be nocturnal. The owl woke me up at
11, 2, and 5 to be fed. His chirps were like little baby chicks, but were incessant enough to wake me each time.
By
the time morning came the food had run out and it was time to find more.
However the only problem was that it had started raining and all the bugs were
hiding. As soon as the rain stopped I went on a mission to find the youth to try and get more bugs and figure out where
this nest was. It was clear that I was not capable of raising this owl, and
it’s best chance of survival was to be back with its family. As soon as I found the youth I began asking
questions and this time the answers were very different. The older children
began to tell me that the bird was no found in a field, but in fact had been
knocked out of it’s nest by a rock the younger kids had been throwing at it.
While this was yet another story that disturbed me, it also meant that they new
where the nest was. The older kids told me that they could take me to the try,
but unfortunately it is to big to climb. When we arrived they pointed at the
spot where the nest was, and as they had told me it was clearly to high to
reach. However it was just low enough that I could life one the kids and he
could place it back. So with out much discussion one of the boys picked up the
owl, I picked him up, and when I brought him back down the owl was gone
All
I can do now is hope that it’s mother will return and it will live to see
another day.
