When I was in Hawaii there was a lot that needed to be done in order to prepare for the wedding as well as the Luau after. It was a lot of fun, I am not afraid to get into the dirt and do some good old fashion manual labor. I and my new brother's cut down some bamboo, went spear fishing, chopped Kiawe and best of all shot and gutted a pig. We cooked the pig in the ground which is called "imu". I was given the honor of killing the pig. Last time my new family shot a pig they tried to shoot it between the eyes. Well the bullet from a .22 pistol was not enough to penetrate the pigs thick skull so it just got it mad. This time around we tried to shoot it behind the ear to see if it would have a cleaner shot into the brain for a quick kill. I shot the pig point blank range and it squeeled and stumbled over only to eventually get back up and stare at us. "Shoot it again", I was told. This time the pig was kind of hiding in the back of the pen but I was a skilled marksman and put another in behind its ear. The same thing happened, the pig fell, got back up, stared. A third time I did this with the same result. By this time I was feeling bad that we were putting this animal through such torture. Finally, the guy who sold us the pig shot it between the eyes and that was enough to put it down for good. I thought, "Wow we could have done that on the first shot afterall". Once we got the pig back home we cut its throat so it would bleed out, burned the hair and shoveled it off, then we gutted it. I was priviledged with cutting out the anal sphincter and putting my thumb up there so that the intestines would not be sucked up into the abdominal cavity. If that happened there was a chance piggy poop would get inside the guts and contaminate the whole thing. I pulled the sphincter out as my father-in-law tied off the intestines. Then I helped pull some fat out of the abdominal cavity in order to minimize the chances of the fat catching fire when it is put in the ground with red hot lava rock. It was a lot of fun to do so many new things. I enjoy having a broad range of experiences. I had never killed an animal before. I was grateful for the experience but I must say I found no joy in taking a life. I suppose that is good since I am training to be a doctor! I was glad for my experiences in Hawaii and for the things that life teaches me.
