Childhood Days Part 3

We had a school farm. Some afternoons after lunch we had activities at school, and my favourite was the school farm. I was a member of the young farmers club! We learnt very basic animal facts, and got to care for an animal. I had a rabbit called Jigsaw!We also had ducks, pigs and goats. The pigs were bred for meat. I didn’t know this at the time, but apparently once they were old enough, they were taken away from their mothers and off to the abbatoir in the school bus! Apparently you could hear them squealing all over the school. Not a very nice thought – but I don’t remember it, so it hasn’t scarred me or made me a vegetarian or anything!
Even the school trip to the abattoir (in the very same bus) couldn’t manage that! We had some great school trips, and this one was a cracker! Some bright teacher obviously got it into their heads that a visit to the abbatoir would be useful and entertaining for us! Not only was it the abbatoir, but also cold storage. So, the animals arrived, were killed, then skinned and gutted and hung. Walking through the cold storage section we could see all these carcasses hanging from hooks with the flesh on them still twitching because they had only been dead a very short time. I’m sure some of the kids must have had nightmares! We had to write a review of all our school trips, complete with pictures, and my friend RP drew a picture of the hanging carcasses going “twitch twitch”!!
Another great school trip was when we went to the local Carlsberg brewery. Carlsberg made two beers (as far as I am aware) for Malawi, and it was brewed locally. These were Carlsberg Green and Brown. My dad loved the greens, and so did most of his friends.
The brewery also manufactured Coca Cola, Fanta and Sprite – and probably several other drinks too. I remember the cream soda we could get – my mum loved it! It was a vivid green colour, and tasted revolting! Also, you could get Grape Fanta there – the only other place I have seen that was in Japan! I tried it when I was there on holiday, and it tasted just the same! Brought so many memories back! Anyway, I don’t remember much about the visit except that we didn’t get to taste the beers – I bet the teachers and accompanying adults did though! I think we got to taste a soft drink!

What I miss is biltong – but only the beef stuff, not the game. I’d love a bit of biltong! When I was in Japan I found beef jerky, which was similar, and I lived on it for a fortnight!

I can’t remember much else tonight – but when I do, I’ll let you know!
NB. Photographs Not My Own Work