The Difference between Ducks and Chickens

Post by Lara

23 August 2013

Today we were sitting outside with our friends at the AYM office while Old Meh (that’s his nickname) cooked potato leaf sauce, and chatting about common livestock in Sierra Leone.  Chickens are by far the most common, and the conversation started with Old Meh pointing to the hen we just gave AYM and showing me that she’s growing and doing well at her new home.  Then as a Guinea fowl walked by, Kevin started asking about the mechanics of keeping Guinea fowl (mostly out of curiosity—our friends inform us that you have to keep different kinds of fowl in different places at night or else they’ll fight…so we’d need to augment our chicken house with some new structures, or do the culturally appropriate thing and start putting some of our livestock in rice bags overnight).  Next a duck walked past, and it occurred to me that this was a perfect time to figure out what it is with ducks that makes them different from chickens.

Now before you fill up our comments section with your own lively answers to the question of how to tell a duck from a chicken [and of course we can’t wait to see what insight you, our readers, can provide us!], let me explain.  We know that ducks have bills and can float on water and fly sometimes and raise little batches of ducklings instead of clutches of chicks. And we know they walk differently and quack instead of clucking. We also know that both are on the list of things that are acceptable to eat here, and that people who keep ducks are keeping them to eat them. What we didn’t know was why it’s ok to put a live chicken in a plastic bag or tie its wings and legs up and take it with you in a vehicle crammed with 30 people and sometimes another chicken and frequently a goat tied to the roof or lying down under a bench, but it is a well-known fact among Sierra Leoneans that you just don’t take ducks on transport.

Here's Ebony and Ivory, ready for transport!

So I asked.  And the answer was something along the lines of, “Well, no driver will take you if you have a duck with you.  They think it will make the car break down.”  I had at one point assumed that this peculiarity arose from some sort of reverence to ducks—like perhaps that they are a delicacy or that you eat ducks for special occasions and that means you shouldn’t travel with them…but no, they told me.  Duck isn’t anything special to eat, except that you get more to eat out of one that out of a single chicken.  Also our friends did not have a story to tell about why drivers are afraid of ducks, such as this one time a driver allowed a woman to bring a duck with her and the duck was really an evil spirit and it made the vehicle crash, though I have a feeling that at the bottom of this a story just like that is lurking. 

What we did learn, though, is that there is a whole list of things that drivers won’t let you take on a trip, and a similar lack of explanation for why anything is on that list.  On the list of items not allowed: cats, dogs, snakes, and…wait for it…pumpkins.  “Monkeys?” I asked Old Meh. “No no no. Monkeys are fine. It’s pumpkins. Pumpkins.  The driver won’t let you take a pumpkin.” Oh—pumpkins! Wait...why pumpkins?  That question has not been met with a sufficient answer…especially when you consider that other produce such as pepper, corn, onions, rice, and even watermelons are a-ok.  (Sidenote: I considered titling this post “The Difference between Pumpkins and Watermelons”)

Oh, and by the way, pumpkins are only not allowed to a point. To make a normal, totally-not-allowed-on-this-vehicle pumpkin into a special pumpkin that’s permitted to be in a car, what do you do? Cut it. Cut it up into small pieces? Oh no, you don’t have to do that, just shave a little off the side—a nick, really.  Then the driver will let you take it.  Oh and if you really need to get your cat to your volunteer friend outside Bo…just put him in a rice bag with some holes poked in it and hope it’ll be quiet until it’s too late for the driver to kick you out [speaking from experience here, my friends].  Getting a driver to allow a dog is also frequently a matter of putting her in a contained space that keeps her well removed from the human passengers [read: empty rice bag]. But a duck?  The only way, our friends inform us, is to hide it so the driver doesn’t know it’s there (and hope it doesn’t quack, I guess). 

So there you go—your mini guide to cargo in Salone.  Remember your rice bag any time you want to transport a small mammal; be prepared to have your large mammal tied to the roof or slid under a seat; make sure to give your pumpkins a nice little scar before hopping on board; and don’t forget that although ducks and chickens may seem kind of similar to the untrained eye, they are definitely not.