Alright..
So this was my first week on my new education for carpentry. In a class of 24 men, me and one other woman.
Most guys are young energy drink consuming boys and some older ones at my age too, who decided to switch career or just finally get a degree.
I'm there to learn how to build a house!
The week has been alright, but today has been a tough day, and I feel like writing about it..
Well, actually today we were supposed to go on a trip to Copenhagen to see the Danish Championship in Skills - apprentices of all crafts compete to be the best in their field.
I would have liked to go, and maybe it would have been a better choice, but we are on an island far from Copenhagen, which meant we had to meet at the school at 5.50 in the morning and would be back at 22 in the evening..! And since I have a son it was a bit hard. His father could probably have taken him the whole day, but I decided it was a bit long trip on the last day of the first week of a new study, which already takes a lot of energy, so I decided not to go.
But since this is freaking traditional school with counting of absence and stuff, the people that didn't go had to do something else and they decided to take us for a field trip to the slaughterhouse...!
How is that relevant for carpenters you might ask? Well.. it's not. It might have had a tiny relevance for the blacksmiths who we also went with, because of the machines, but else it was just something to do, since the recycling station, which was their first choice didn't have time.
I didn't take any pictures (actually we signed a paper promising not to), but here is a photo of the place source
So we went to this factory where they kill 300+ pigs an hour - 10. to 15.000 a week (on an island of 40.000 inhabitants). We came to a room where we were served hot chocolate and coffee and a guy started telling about the production. In the end, when we had to go down and see it all, he said that if someone didn't feel like watching this mass murder (maybe framed a bit differently ;)), nobody were forced to go.
I wasn't really sure if I should go or not. It all reminded me of Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals which I read about a year ago, and I thought it's probably good to see the reality.. I mean he did.. But then both of my side mates, who had both seen a slaughterhouse before, did not need to see/hear/smell it again and the teacher also were like - it's nasty stuff, sure you want to see it? (since I was the only one raising my hand when asked if there were any vegetarians), and in the end I decided not to go. And I am happy I didn't because what I saw and heard and smelled was enough to make me feel sick the rest of the day and still now.
What happened then was that most of the class went into hygiene suits and went down to the hall and me and 5 other students remained in the welcome room. Three of them had seen it before and started telling about the sound when the pigs get cut in half and the saw hits the bones. The screaming of the pigs when they are forced down the corridors. The guy that cuts throats after throat like a robot. And then the smell. the smell of shit, the smell of death, the smell of fear.
And I smelled it. It was in the air, and then when the guys came back up, they brought the smell with them so heavy. One guy also had to come up earlier as he couldn't stand the smell.
I still keep smelling that smell, even though I wasn't actually in there. It has hung with me all day.
Afterwards we all went down to see the workshop halls where they cut iron and sharpen blades and stuff and where naked calender girls was the only decoration.
There we passed the trucks with the living pigs being led screaming into the waiting stables.
We passed where the steam from the scalding tubs were led out..
So much fear and death in the air.
And the crazy thing is that everyone agreed that it was nasty stuff. That the smell made them sick. Even the people working there. All of the students who returned from the halls, most of them looking pretty sick.. But then everybody keeps the mask up by making jokes about having to go home and eat some pork, and can't live without bacon and shit..
I was just so happy that my lunch box consisted of falafel and cabbage salad..
And then when we didn't talk about slaughtering pigs, the ones of us remaining in the coffee room, we talked about our kids. Funnily enough, the three of us there all have a 5 year old, which mean they have to start school this year, and we have all considered the same school (even though my long term plan is a homeschooling community in our eco village, but don't know if that will be ready by this year..).
So we talked about how this school is and they start talking about all the bullying they've heard of and how their kids are already fighting and being bullied or bullying in the kindergarten. This guy says, laughing that he already knows his kid is gonna go to jail one day, because he is a real bully, and the other says her daughter is being teased about her hair color and clothes..
And I'm like.. omg, what is this world..?
And they both admit that they are overweight, but it's so hard to eat healthy and can't live without meat and coca cola, but trying to count calories and eat as the doctor says.
I am used to eating healthy fresh food because I enjoy it, because it's beautiful and it makes me feel good!
I have lived in this happy isolated bubble, having my son at home and meeting up with all the other sweet families who also have their kids at home and homeschool and live off the land and suddenly it just seems like a fairytale world..!
Here is the dominant world, where everybody eats pigs, even though it makes them sick witnessing the slaughter.
Leaving their kids most of the day in day care, even though they know the kids gets bullied or are bullying other kids.
And then they constantly make jokes about it. Really, constantly..! They are saying all these things, as if it was fun..! I guess it's the laugh or cry thing.. And they accept it because that's just the way things are. And everybody needs to fit in. And that's how everyone else does. And fuck the vegans, 'cause bacon is my only real pleasure in this world.'
I know I am not better than them. But I feel lucky.
I feel lucky that I don't have to live that life and that I am surrounded by people who think differently. That they exist and that i exist in the parallel fairytale universe.
And all of these people in the dominant universe I now spend half of my day in, they are all nice people. No doubt.
I didn't talk much about the rest of the week where we were sawing in wood with hand saws (which smells a lot better than sawing in pigs..!), and when I can also laugh of some of the jokes, but it's there. And I actually appreciate getting out of my bubble and meet "normal people" ;)
I kind of hope that some of the people today recall the smell, as I did, next time they want to eat a piece of pork, and if not, well, that's fine too..
Maybe I am the crazy one, being the only vegetarian dreadlocked feminist in the class I surely appear so! And probably I am. But I don't mind. I still feel lucky. And I feel true to myself. And I am going to keep sawing wood on this school and learn some shit so I can go out and build my house in the forest!
Thank you for listening. I feel a bit better now 🤸♀️