My Machete
So in preparation for the village I have bought a machete. Owning a machete in the village is absolutely indispensable, like clean underwear. And if you are ever drawing a blank they are always good gift ideas. One of the most shocking facts about the use of machetes in this country is that the minimum age limit is somewhere around when you learn to crawl. Maybe a slight exaggeration, but when the school children have Youth Day, which involves cleaning up around their schools and cutting the grass, they all bring their machetes from home.
Knowing that little children feel more comfortable wielding a machete than I do, I felt, as a right of passage, that I should get one for myself. You never know when you will have to hack the head off a snake, right?
So after getting the top of the line machete ($6), I enlisted the gardener to sharpen it for me. I chose him because multiple people, unsolicited, told me that he would do a great job and though I am a machete novice, I could tell the man did nice work. This became especially clear when a passerby reminded me that if I missed what I am swinging at I will chop deep into my leg. Come to think of it, I don’t know if it had to do with how sharp the thing was or whether she knew I had never swung one before. Either way, point taken.
