Houser and I were walking home the other day and as we got close to the walkway of our house we smelled a pungent odor and heard some funny sounds. We looked over the side wall to our neighbor's house and saw them preparing this dog for dinner. There are actual farms here where dogs are bred for eating, like we raise cattle in the States. This dog is too small to have been one of those. It is not uncommon for people to also eat dogs that were just hit by cars. For a while here at our base, people in the neighborhood were calling and telling some of our boy staff if dogs were found that were hit by a car. Then they would go, collect it, skin it and prepare it for dinner.
Here in the North East people are serious meat eaters. At some of the different markets in the NE you can find all sorts of "meats." People eat cat, dogs, monkey, elephant, eel, hornets, snake, silk worms...the list goes on. It is so interesting to me that people from different cultures and nations have such different tastes and ways of cooking.
Growing up in my family, all of our cats and dogs were like children in the home. It was a big paradigm shift to come here and to learn that people actually eat them. Some people here do have dogs and cats as pets here and love them dearly. Our house owner has a little cat named Vexie that we all love and play with.
I love that God is so diverse in His creation all over the world. People from different nations look different and dress differently, we like different foods and different sounds and there are are so many different languages and ways that beauty is expressed. However the essence of the human heart is the same. We all want to know that we are loved. We were all made to love One who is worthy. We all have hopes and fears and dreams, and we're all searching and longing and aching for something that is real and true and that transcends time. Truly He has put eternity in our hearts, in all of mankind. Truly He is the only One who can satisfy, in all of the world, in all of created order.
