Every Wednesday and Thursday I travel to Romania to teach English in the afternoon to a number of classes in the After School Programs the Christian Gypsymission Foundation is running there. In the evenings I move on to a nearby Roma church, where I do a weekly church service.
Recently, after I had just passed the border with Romania by car, all of a sudden I saw a fazant by the side of the road. At the moment that I passed him, he quickly decided to cross the road, but that became fatal to him. My car hit him, and he didn’t survive. After I had heard the bang, I looked in my mirror to see if I would find anything on the road, but I didn’t see anything. That could only mean one thing: the animal was still somewhere stuck on the car… A little further I pulled over, and yes: it got pierced through the grill, his neck was snapped and the little head was hanging out. Since I couldn’t get it out, I drove on to the school with the fazant still in the grill.
Once I got there, the teachers were very helpful – and excited! – to get the fazant out of the grill with one pull. Immediately the head was chopped off, so the blood could run out as soon as possible. While I was teaching English to the children, the fazant was being plucked, washed and cooked. When I was about to leave after the lessons, they gave me a pan with fresh fazant meat. Honestly, I must say that I was not that fond of it, although others might love a piece of venison. But I was touched what a great treasure this piece of meat was to the people there. Whereas we perhaps would rather leave a hit animal by the side of the road…
Anyway, I had a new experience in all this! The teachers asked me when I left: we wonder what you will bring next week when you arrive! 🙂
