A Paraguayan Perspective on Pork | Mario's Peace Corps Journal

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March 30th, 2012

Mario-peace-corps-blog-80 I woke up this morning to what might possibly be the most hellish sound on the planet: that of a pig being slaughtered. The death of a pig is of no more or less consequence than that of any other animal, but the drama of hearing a pig scream and squeal its last living breath away weighs heavy on the heart. Pigs don’t die quietly, that is for sure. At least I know that I won’t be eating any more pork when I get home to the States.

This is life in the country, though—your food is walking around one day, eating scraps from the table and rummaging through your garden, and is served up for dinner the next. It is quite a strange experience to eat an animal’s meat on the same day I have seen it living and breathing. Sometimes it is easy to remove yourself from the equation, but a wake-up call at six in the morning in the form of a weeping and wailing pig does help to keep it all in perspective. —Mario Machado

My neighbors recently bought these two piglets to raise. They will be slaughtered and eaten sometime next year, probably for a holiday or other special occasion—a common practice in Paraguay.

Tags: Paraguay, peace corps, pig, pork

Comments

Wow! that’s extreme. In my case (swaziland) we had to deal with all the chickens. When ever I wanted one I paid a kid to chase it down, pluck it and cut it up. I wouldn’t want to do that myself, but the girls thought nothing of it and appreciated the change. Hang in there!
mark

Posted by: Mark Kromer April 5th, 2012 at 5:32 pm

Yes, this is the price we pay for pork, or at least the pig paid it. Being raised on a farm, this was one of the realities of eating meat. You remember the story of Charles the pig that we raised after his ears were frozen off and his mother abandoned him. That was his fate and my father did not have the heart to tell us that he went to market (once we understood what that meant).

Posted by: Martha Machado April 21st, 2012 at 3:39 pm

About

Mario Machado is a Peace Corps volunteer serving as an agricultural educator in the rural Paraguayan community of Guido Almada.

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