The day our beloved dogs ate the pork meat
21 April 2015
JIMMY AWAGL
An entry in the Crocodile Prize
Paga Hill Development Company
Award for Writing for Children
ONE sunny Friday morning, Sussie, just seven years old, was tasked to look after a pig.
She was told to look after the heavily pregnant mother pig while her elder brother and sisters went to school.
Sussie took her small grass knife, a spade, some firewood and a small bilum (string bag) filled with kaukau (sweet potatoes) which she would cook while looking after the pig. She went all the way to where her pig was tied and began to dig a pit for the mumu (stone oven).
Instead of looking after the pig, she was carried away with the desire of making a mumu and prepared the stones to cook the kaukau.
She was so engrossed she did not notice that, not so far away, the pig gave birth to six fat piglets.
Suddenly Sussie heard the piglets crying and, looking around, to her surprise the mother pig was killing four of them.
Sussie ran to rescue the piglets, she it was too late.
She held up one of the dead piglets and cried bitterly. Then she screamed at the top of her voice. Her mother heard and ran to help her.
Mother took the mother pig and the two piglets home and Sussie followed her mother with the four dead piglets in her bilum.
By the time they reached home her older brothers and sisters had returned from school. They were angry with Sussie but felt sorry for her too because she was too small to handle such difficult things.
One older brother cooked the dead piglets in a mumu and, when they were cooked, they uncovered the mumu and shared the food.
While they were eating, they heard people shouting and crying on the road next to their house. Leaving the food, they rushed outside.
On the road they saw a man bashing his wife because she had been playing cards all day. When the argument was settled, then they returned to eat their pig meat.
It was then they realised that their pig meat had grown legs and disappeared.
Their beloved dogs were sleeping beside the mumu place with their tummies swelling like pregnant mothers.
Sussie’s elder brother grabbed a big stick and chased the greedy dogs into the nearby bushes.
Their father returned from town to find them sitting around the mumu pit with tears in their eyes.
“Why are you crying? Is there anything wrong?” he asked them.
Sussie reported the incident to their father.
He lifted her to his chest, hugged her and wiped off her tears.
“My daughter, do not worry. Your brothers and sisters are big enough to handle things properly but they failed.
“So I will buy something to satisfy your tummy tomorrow,” Father said.
On Saturday morning, her father went into town and bought a K20 package of lamb flaps for them to cook and eat.
They had a delicious meal to make up for the previous day’s loss.
But pig is everyone’s favourite, so take care of the pork meat when you are not around.
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