The Gods Must Be Crazy

Ernie

So I think I have blogged about my dog before. Well, he’s not really my dog. My counterpart Ernest had this dog, and because I showed it love every few days or so, it adopted me as its permanent owner. At first the dog (who I named Ernest because Ernest refused to name it) would go to Ernest’s to eat, but would sleep outside my door, follow me everywhere in the village, including following me into classrooms when I was teaching at the school etc..

 I hated this dog. He would follow me, then chase people’s goats, then people would yell at me, and I would just try to explain “but he’s NOT my dog.” But apparently the dog and everyone else thought otherwise.

Then Ernest moved away to Gabs and left this dog. I thought Ernest’s girlfriend was still feeding it, as per our former arrangement. But apparently not.

One day I awoke to find Ernest tied up in my neighbor’s yard. “That’s strange,” I thought, and went to work. The neighbor happened to be a nurse at my clinic, so I asked him what was up. The nurse told me that the dog had killed some of his chickens, and ate some of his eggs, so he was going to kill it. He had already called Ernest in Gabs, and Ernest said it was alright.

I immediately got choked up. I started crying. I could not imagine living in Mookane without Ernie. He had really grown on me. All the while the dog was whining in the yard. After calling my friend Ashley and asking what to do, she urged me to go and try to save it. I went to the nurse and said that I would pay for the chickens and tie Ernie up in the yard at night so he wouldn’t eat any more. The nurse, obviously uncomfortable that I was showing emotion (like Batswana often are), said it was okay, that I could stop crying and he didn’t need any money from me.

So that’s how I saved Ernie’s life and got a dog. Ernest says that when he’s finished with school at Gabs he will take the dog. So hopefully that will happen.

So now I officially have a dog. And a cat. Both not of my choosing. But it is nice to have someone to come home to every night.