The boys' latest venture in the tribe is bird hunting with their friends... both our teammates' kids and the tribal boys. They use a combination of bows and arrows, air soft guns and this type of boomerang wooden stick thing... I think the current kill rate is tribal boys - 1 million; white boys - zero. :)
I cringe every time they came back with a dead bird. We live in a tropical rain forest, people. The birds are bright green and red and beautiful and would be in a zoo in America. The boys aren't killing annoying black ravens or pigeons. :( I saw a huge white cockatoo that a tribal boy caught a couple weeks back.... it was gorgeous. It also fed his entire family for dinner that night.
Ethics aside, hunting has led to obsession with all things bird. We're researching bird houses, bird traps, mating seasons and nest building. Last week the tribal boys came by in the morning and we (uncharacteristically and very graciously!) allowed the boys to skip school to go hunting. They came back an hour later with two "kills" that all 10 boys plucked and gutted and roasted and ate... I think each boy got half a bite of meat. That afternoon, I kid you not, we opened our history lesson to the life of John James Audubon and the founding of the Audubon Society. (Yes, I get the irony.)
So on our vacation last month, when we gave the boys the option of visiting the zoo or visiting a bird park, they, of course, chose the bird park.
The bird park was SO cool. I was surprised. :) The birds were everywhere but in cages. Wandering on sidewalks, perched in trees. It was literally like a big bird resort where the birds just kinda did their thing and we wandered around and tried not to get stepped on or pooped on.
Ever the ham....
After a show on predator birds....
Feeding time.... and no, we didn't get any white splotches on clothes or hats. :)
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