Yep. I hit two sheep with my car.
My favorite supermarket here is Bambis and it's not too far from my house - 7 to 20 (or more) minutes from my house, depending on the traffic. They have some good stuff, it's relatively well organized, and they have a parking lot in the back for customers only - meaning you're not hit up by all the people trying to sell you "RoyBam" sunglasses and phone cards, and begging for money, or trying to "help" you park (for a tip), wanting to shine your shoes, sell you gum, wash your car (with water from the gutter on the side of the road), etc. Bambis just has a clean atmosphere, you can pay by credit card, and they play Christmas music the whole month of December! But on your way there from my house you have to go through a messy intersection with loads of traffic (created by the Traffic Police who are substituting themselves for the Traffic Light...which never works), right past an orthodox church, which means there are tons of beggars and blind men and women with babies (who are often not their own, but are strapped on to make more money), and people selling RoyBams and sun shades and tissues, and begging for your money, and getting insanely close to your car while you're trying to drive forward when the traffic finally moves...whew!
Anyway, I got through all that and turned left to go down the next street a bit and take a left into the Bambis parking lot - nay, parking sanctuary. I'm heading down the street when I notice that the herd of sheep who are grazing in the median of this busy street (a common sight here) decide to bolt out into the street for some reason. They're sheep, right, so the reason is moot. The car in front of me swerved and thankfully I was far enough behind him to see this unfolding - so I hit the brakes and veered to the right. But those sheep, they just kept running into the street.
They're sheep. They're dumb.
In that last second that my car came to a full stop, I watched the "shepherd" put both hands on his head as he threw it back and covered his eyes. He turned the other way, unable to watch (even though he wasn't too upset about them running into the street in the first place). Two dirty, dumb (not cute and fluffy) little sheep disappeared under my car with a little sheep-thud. Oops. What was I thinking at this point? Well, I watched the "shepherd" not care for his sheep, and then watched him turn away, unable to watch. So I felt a tiny bit badly about the possibility of killing two of his sheep in front of him. BUT then is VERY quickly remembered that actually, these guys do not actually take much care of their sheep. These Urban "shepherds" bring them in, graze them on medians, let them run out in front of cars without chasing after them, and then once they're sold (to be slaughtered), they LITERALLY drag them off.
Since I'm chasing a rabbit trail and leaving my story for a minute, allow me to give you a little idea of what happens once a sheep is sold:
-often they are hog-tied (all fours tied together) and strapped (alive) onto the top of a taxi or car
-they might be hog-tied and (alive) thrown into the hot trunk of a car and driven to their destination on the bump addis roads
-hog-tied and carried upside down, dangling between two men
-a man grabs the two front legs of the sheep while said sheep is facing forward (head in the guy's butt), and he pulls the sheep long with him...but the sheep does not want to go so he's dragging those back legs as best he can
-same as above, but the man holds the two back legs and s the sheep backwards, behind him
-same as above but the man holds the hind legs and the sheep is in front of him (think man/sheep wheelbarrow race)
-(maybe my favorite) a man ties a little rope around the sheep's hind (or front) leg (just one) and then just pulls...so the sheep is now three-legged, once again resisting as best he can, with one leg up
-(my least favorite) sometimes the sheep will REALLY put up a fight and refuse to walk, so I've seen sheep dragged on their knees before. I appreciate the protesting, but I think I would just give in at that point.
I actually saw a man carrying a hog-tied sheep upside down with one hand, and then when he came to the edge of the road to wait for the bus, he set it down like it was a hand bag. I couldn't help but bust out laughing. It was just all so matter-of-fact!
ANYWAY. So there were these two sheep under my car... I though for sure I had killed at least one if not both of them, I didn't feel any remorse once i remembered how the "shepherds" treat their sheep (merchandise) here, so I was actually pretty annoyed that I was probably going to have to spend a while apologizing and negotiating the price of these sheep - and I had no idea how much a sheep went for. Who would know? whom could I call? Dorothy. But she was in the US. Andrew. He can find out. He can ask Tariku to go up the street to some guys who sell sheep and he'll tell me the going rate and I'll attempt to negotiate something close to that, then they'll want more money for having to strap the dead sheep(s?) to my luggage rack and there will be a big crowd gathered to watch the whole thing because this white lady is providing some lovely mid-day entertainment for the whole neighborhood. And then, of course, after all that drama (with Jackson in the car), I would pull into my Bambis Parking Sanctuary with dead sheep(s?) strapped to my roof. I would do my shopping as usual and would drive home and then figure out what to do with my fresh purchases. Perhaps a neighborhood sheep roast? Throw a big impromptu party? What would the car look like after driving all the way home with my kill strapped to the roof? Getting less annoying, more humorous.
But alas. I watched the "shepherd's" reaction as he turned back around and opened his eyes...and his sheep scrambled to their feet and kept awkwardly hobbling along. I started driving again after honking at the negligent caretaker (it's how we communicate on the road here), and drove on, watching my side mirror as the sheep scrambled across the road - and get hit by the taxi behind me! One of the sheep I hit got hit by a taxi! Then he got up again and scrambled off. Again. it was HILARIOUS. I pulled into Bambis and went in - and found about half of my grocery list.
You know. Just a trip to the supermarket. Life is not really boring around here!
