This afternoon at 430 pm, I was informed by our host that we
would be going somewhere this evening.
That’s all the information I received for about 20 minutes. The host left to do something in his yard and
I was left to continue my research on the surrounding villages and towns where
he wants to serve. There is not much
information about Rusanesti locality, or of the greater county area. I could find the population and geographic
location of the county within Romania,
but little else. When Cristi returned
from the yard, it was almost a welcomed interruption from the fruitless
google-ing.
“We are going to go to my neighbor’s house tonight,” he
said. I returned with a smile and
obvious follow-up question, “what time?”
Cristi said a lot to come to a send a little message, “sometime while it’s
still light, because we’ll stay outside.
I want to go not for inside. Six,
no 530pm; we will go at 530 to the neighbors.”
At 530 we
gathered outside the Filip home to walk next door. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it
is. We haven’t left the house without
the car at all, not once, this whole time.
Walking out his gate was how I imagine it feels to walk out of
prison. We walked 8 feet to his
neighbor’s gate and our arrival was announced by Cristi hollering over the
fence! How’s that for a grand
entrance?!
Once on the
property we were shown the green houses where the family has melon, chili,
watermelon, eggplant and spinach growing.
Then we walked around to the bird cage-really, it was the chicken wire
fenced area where various feathered animals were corralled. There were hens, roosters, turkeys and …even
a duck! After just a moment it became
apparent the male turkey was trying to flirt with the female. He had his feathers fluffed and was shaking
his tail feathers. (image below shows the puffed-up turkey, trying to strut for onlooking females)
He walked to her
front, then to her back; then he slightly brushed against her with his plume as
if “on accident” only to stand right in front of her again. We were so intrigued by this mating ritual that
we simply stared. The time continued so
we began making up the script this crazy discovery channel episode we walked in
on. Just as we were laughing at the
similarities of the male species, the turkey started to get frustrated at the
female’s cold shoulder routine. He
picked at her neck, and then he literally stepped on her, plucking some
feathers! We couldn’t believe it-he
stepped on her; surely this doesn’t win him any points. He got off, walked around more, continuing
the big man cock-walk, with feathers poof-ed and tail wagging back and
forth. This was one of the craziest
things I’ve ever witnessed. It was like
a train wreck: you don’t want to watch, but you just can’t peel your eyes
away. The whole song and dance was
awkwardly mesmerizing!
We thought it was
all was over when the male turkey was making rounds around the pen chanting (we
obviously made up his words), “wham, bam, thank you ma’am,” an older (we
theorized) turkey showed up. He used his
wings to corner the lady turkey into a corner, making it easy for the
stud-turkey to do a little more mating. It
was like the old guy was trying to ensure his chance for grandbaby
turkeys. This just isn’t the kind of
backyard entertainment you seem in suburban America.
