Day 107: If you have a weak stomach stop reading now

The following stuff doesn't bother me, so I photograph it and post it with no problem. However I do understand that some of my readership are a bit more...delicate, so if you don't like animal parts (animals...in parts) I suggest you leave.

It's ok, we'll wait.

Why don't you think about...puppies.



Alright! This evening my host mom unceremoniously dragged in a huge black garbage bag and dropped it in the middle of the kitchen floor. I was in the living room typing on the computer when she started yelling for me because she wanted to show me something.

And what a treasure she had!



That, if you can't tell, is the upper half of a walrus skull. Somewhat fresh, but not fresh enough to not totally stink up the kitchen. It was quite a beast.



Walrus are more feared out here than polar bears. Four of Therecie's relatives, including her grandfather, an uncle, a brother-in-law, and a son-in-law have been killed by walrus. My host father says his worst nightmares are about walrus hitting his boat. In the water they're the most dangerous thing, because you don't see them coming until they come up under your boat and hit you down with those teeth.

The Discovery Channel nerd in me would like to take this opportunity to recognize the parallels between Africa and the Arctic, in that water animals are in fact the most dangerous animals in both areas (hippos and walrus, respectively) rather than the assumed most dangerous land animals (lions and polar bears).

Denoting a bitter end:



In case you're curious, although they do eat walrus, this guy was already picked over so I haven't gotten to try that meat yet. The hunter who brought him in is related to Therecie and she wanted to have a look at it. The skull was going on to someone else who paid quite an extraordinary amount of money to have it.