Feral

Feral, used to describe animals that live or grow in the wild after having been domestically reared or cultivated.  Similar to, or typical, of a wild animal.

The word feral used to describe people, was new to me.  Among the Peace Corps community, in Malawi, it is used often to describe a behavior that has been adapted during our time here.  Some stories include fighting pigs for food, having an animal eat your fecal matter, rescuing a goat from the hole in the ground we use for a toilet, ‘having an accident’ aka pooping your pants as an adult…preferably on public transport, etc.  Now that I think about it, all the examples have to do with food or feces.  Which goes to show what we discuss here…when we aren’t discussing the meaning of life.

It began when I ran out of make-up, it continued when I started rationing shampoo/stopped washing my hair, it escalated when my deodorant finished, it began to summit when there was no option to purchase toilet paper in town, and it climaxed into my personal “going feral” moment.  I was consuming milk powder only after I raked away the rat droppings.  In defense of myself…powdered milk is a luxury item in my morning coffee and I somehow convinced myself it wasn’t what I knew it was.

Domesticate, to accustom an animal to living with or near people, to accustom somebody to home life or housework, to cultivate plants or raise animals, selectively breeding them to increase their suitability for human requirements.

It feels as if the society we are raised in is doing so much work to domesticate us.  Domesticate us at home, at school, at work for The Company, in our community, in our place of worship, in our shopping, with our family, with our friends, with the stranger we sit next to but don’t talk.  We spend all this time and money to adapt to our new manufactured environments.  Losing our customs to be more accustomed to what?  For wealth, for convenience, for health we have lost, for meaning we are too bored to search for?  We have domesticated ourselves out of relationship, out of reality. And we demand others to domesticate with us. I consider this two-year stint in the Peace Corps as “going feral”. Maybe it is time we go feral. A return to our natural environment is necessary, with a renewed desire to work to restore our environment, our health, and ourselves.  I do look forward to some of the luxuries of domesticated living (hot showers!) and fecal-less coffee.  I am cautious about returning to the domesticated life that consumes time and resources that do not line up with my values.

Feral sounds like mange, no couth, rabid living.  But maybe it is a return to simplicity.  Feral just may be a return to the natural habitat and as long as we take more knowledge with us maybe it is a compulsory move.  Living naturally with more wisdom, grace, and peace.  Our domesticated lives prove to be as, or more, brutal than the wild from which we came. 

So what is the term that describes someone who was domesticated, gone feral and about to return home? A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV).

I’m coming home, soon.