NIGHT OUT

The night of Sept.8 we slept out on the hillside behind our house. Ed's idea! I got home at 7:30 in the evening and Ed said we weren't sleeping here. Ooooh! says I with curiosity and ready for adventure. Until he told me we were taking blankets and sleeping out where we could watch the full moon and look down on the villages visible from the hill. It had been 50 degrees the night before, and a bit coolish for sleeping without a tent. Anyway, he had it all planned out, so we had dinner, and then followed the list of preparations he had made during the day. I put on opaque pantyhose, jeans and sweatpants, a camisole, turtleneck knit shirt, a down vest, and an all-weather jacket with hood. All my wool things were packed away for the summer, but I found a wool scarf for my head and one wool sweater (which I took but never wore). Ed wore several layers, too; we were plenty warm the whole time. Ed made a thermos of coffee, packed a supply of candy and cigarettes, I made a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich, he organized everything into a basket which I carried, and he carried three blankets and a big blue plastic groundcloth from my old camping days. I took my pillow. And the dog.

What an interesting night. At that time of the year, the wild boars come out of the forest or wherever they live and raid the fields of potatoes and corn. Men walk around their crops during the night making noise, lighting bonfires, and tying their dogs nearby. From our house, we've heard their noise before, but it was different being up in the midst of it. The moon didn't come out until late, and so we could see a lot of stars in the dark sky. But it wasn't a quiet, romantic night in the open. Men were walking by, not close, but we could easily see them, and they were shouting, "wooo, wooo wooo, wooo," and blowing whistles and horns and beating on drums. I had asked our neighbor if she thought we would be safe (from boars) and she said she thought we were crazy, but we'd probably be OK. Her husband said, "Well, the boars might not bother you, but you should watch out for bears and wolves." I think he was kidding. They had already lost about a wagonload of corn to boars in just one night, and they now send a man up to guard. It was another lesson in village life: after all the work of planting and caring for the crop, they had to defend it! The government won't allow boar hunting except by "hunting clubs" with special permits, mainly as a sport. And supposedly the area is overrun with them. I've seen the damage they have caused to the fields just at the edge of the forest where they have been digging. Really big areas just torn up. Driving into the city two days later I was even more aware of the purpose of little shelters all over the hills, and I know now that men sit in them during the night keeping the boars out of their fields.