I had a “where am I?” moment yesterday at Food Distribution.  One of our regulars came in with another lady, so I greeted them as usual, and bent down to get a couple bags.  It took me a moment for my brain to realize what it had just saw, and for that split second, I was taken back to Botswana….

My very first (of many) trips out to the villages in the bush of Botswana was one I will never forget.  ’Till this day there is an image that will be forever engraved in my head, and it was this memory that I was taken back to.  I remember walking around the village, from hut to hut, when all of a sudden I noticed a little boy sitting in the sand munching on something. As I looked closer, I noticed that it was a bird… a dead bird… and he was eating it.  I was totally disgusted, but intrigued at the same time.  I mean, he was eating it like a kid would eat an ice cream cone. Feathers and all, that bird was this little boys “afternoon snack”. I would have taken a picture, but I think at that moment I was in shock.

Back to yesterday… when I looked up again I noticed that she was holding in her hands a bird.  Not just any bird, but a pigeon.  She was holding him by his wings pinned back so his feet were dangling.  I didn’t know what to do or say, so I just said, “What is THAT?”  She doesn’t really speak Hebrew well, so she just smiled and chuckled a bit.  I then decided to ask her if she was going to eat it, and she said, “Yes!” (Like, what else would she do with it?!?)

Once again, I was in a bit of shock.  First of all, this is Tel Aviv.  The city.  Not the bush of Africa, but the city.  I really couldn’t believe she had just captured this bird and was going to eat it.  My mind was racing.  I looked at Brent, and he just smiled.

After she and her bird left, we began discussing all the possibilities for that bird:  pigeon soup, fried pigeon, pigeon and rice…. etc.  I’m not sure how much meat is actually on a pigeon, but we had a few laughs with our lists.

There are moments in life which you will never forget, and that bind together with other moments.  This was one of those. I guess the saying is true for any place in the world… You can take the woman out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the woman.

(and this time, I actually got a picture)