Last Sunday afternoon, an African man came to our house with a “gift”. He brought us a Marsh Owl (still alive!) that had flown into his porch light the night before and gotten disoriented. He described it flopping around, like it was blind, on his porch. He went on to say that he had hit the owl in the head multiple times with a stick....which we didn’t understand. We couldn’t quite figure out from his broken English if that was the only way he could subdue it to capture it (it was a bit menacing: about 15 inches tall, with a sharp beak and claws, and prone to hissing), or if it was for sport....?
When the owl was still living the next morning, the man decided to bring it to us to care for. (I guess after the kids looked after the litter of kittens in the dining hall, we became known as the “mzungus who like animals”). The man had set it on the ground in front of our house. It was a beautiful bird with brown and cream speckled feathers, the characteristic heart-shaped face, and piercing black eyes. Had it not been sitting nearly sideways with its wings flopped out on the ground, he would have appeared quite majestic.
Jason and Ethan made it a perch with a tree branch propped up on two cinder blocks. Jason used the branch to lift the owl up and move it behind the house, where it wouldn’t be disturbed by all the African children who were poking at it with sticks and yelling at it. Ethan was able to get it to drink water from a spoon (we made him wear safety goggles just in case it decided it had enough energy to attack him!) Shortly after it drank, it started to perk up, and stood up straight on the perch with his wings pulled into his sides.
When it began getting dark, the man who brought us the owl came back by and told us that if we left it on the ground behind the house, stray dogs would come by at night and eat it. So Jason and Ethan found a suitable location higher up, on the 2nd floor stair railing of a building being constructed next door. They carried the perch up there, owl and all, and laid it across the corner of the railing.
The next morning, the kids went to check on Willow. (Funny how any critter that comes into contact with my kids ends up with a name.) He was still sitting on the railing, but when they approached, he flew off. We were pleased that he looked strong and was able to fly well. The kids felt really good, especially Ethan, that they were able to help Willow recover. But alongside the feeling of satisfaction nagged this unanswered question that bothered all of us: Why had the man beaten this magnificent bird with a stick?
The next day, we asked Festo (our new Ugandan friend) about it. Festo explained that many people here hold a belief that if an owl lands on your house, it brings a curse and someone in that household will die. So by beating the bird, the man believed he was protecting his family. That made more sense to us, and satisfied the nagging question...until another question popped into my head that still hasn’t been answered: Then why did he bring the owl to us as a “gift”? Hmm... I think some things just don’t translate well into words.
We learned about another local belief this morning: If you burn a rubber tire in front of your house, the stench will drive away snakes. After seeing our first burning tire next to a set of snake tracks in the sand near our house today, I might just give that theory a go.
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