Peace Corps Ukraine: Pig Slaughtering and an Ogre

This vegetarian survived the pig slaughtering, slightly scarred for life, but not totally scarred for life.

Two weeks into the twelve week Peace Corps Ukraine pre-service training in a northern Ukrainian village, my host family informed me their pig would be slaughtered the next day.

I slept in, probably subconsciously trying to somehow avoid the slaughtering, waking up about 9:00. The killing was to begin at 9:30. I look outside the window and see my host dad, Viktor, and the neighbor near the barn with knives at their hips. They bring the pig out from the pen, onto a dirt area between the barn and the house.

The Slaughtering

The neighbor leans down, knife in hand, and slits the throat of the pig. Immediately, I see the blood flow out neatly into a bucket and I hear it, a terrifying, horrendous, blood curdling screech of the pig trying to fight for its life. I was shocked. I couldn’t move. I sat there listening to this pig being killed, I couldn’t escape it. I reached for my headphones thinking that might mute the sounds but as my host mom, Hanna, comes in, I almost feel like I’m judging her or being rude if I put on the headphones. So I didn’t put them on.

She asked if I wanted to go out there and I said no, I couldn’t do it. The view from the window is enough. I sat at my desk until the sounds stopped. It was about 2 minutes of pig screeching, trying to escape or beg for its life. A sound I won't ever forget. Then silence.

I slowly crept outside and rounded the corner to the side yard. I was half way expecting to see blood and pig guts all over, but I see a pig, on its back, its four legs sticking straight to the sky. No blood in sight. Viktor and the neighbor were holding fire torches to it burning the hair off. Now that it was dead, what could I do but accept what has already happened? I went back to the window a few more times to see what the process was. They were torching it and then scraping off all of the burned hair and crap. Literally crap, shit, these animals are disgusting. I saw knives in their pockets, getting ready to cut the meat off of the dead animal.

Post Slaughter Festivities with an Orge

Hannah adds a table in the kitchen for a feast of pig, potatoes, cucumber, radish and of course, vodka. I sit down as Viktor pours me and another Peace Corps volunteer a shot of vodka, down it goes.

Around the table are Viktor, Hanna, the sister-in-law whom I had already met, a neighbor, her husband (the butcher), and 2 other guys. These guys are huge, dirty, kind of gross, and half of their teeth are gold. Then the ogre of a man comes in.

He sits next to me - 6”5’ and built, muscular, huge, this is the biggest motherfucker I have ever seen!
His hands can palm a watermelon;
his voice is so deep it sounds straight out of a fairytale or cartoon;
his mouth is filled with at least 10 gold teeth;
there is dirt under the fingernails on his kielbasa-sized fingers;
his eyes bug out from his skull;
all his features are freakishly huge – nose, lips, ears;
he’s missing a nub off his index finger which just adds to ogre-ness.

I couldn’t even focus on the food or anything else with this ogre sitting next to me. He uses his sausage fingers to grab cubes of newly slaughtered fried pig and bread, chomping down with his massive teeth. We all enjoy a lunch full of food, vodka and laughter.

Just another day in Turbiv, this tiny village in Ukraine.

#Peace Corps Ukraine