Monday is known as the official market day. During the market day, Ropi village is invaded by native people and from surrounding villages or centres. Each of them comes to sell or to buy his goods. Lack of cars, people use either horses or donkeys for their transport and their goods. As we underlined above, we focus our sharing on donkey which is considered as one of the most preferable animals by some families in Ropi village and surroundings. Donkey is a member of horse family called equids. Morphologically, Donkey is smaller than the horse. Donkey has very long ears, usually a gray or brown coat with white underparts and muzzle, a short, and a tail with a tuft of long hair only at the tip, and a large head. Practically, donkey is so useful for the people in our area. It helps to carry heavy loads for their owners, such as packs… Briefly, being a domesticated animal, Donkey is used primarily for work, transport. The family which gets a Donkey has high standard. Here, Donkeys are also used as taxi or transport’s mean. They have their own drivers who guide them. Some families use them as chariots for income generating. Donkey is a luxurious animal. So far, it costs around 1500ETB, which is the equivalent to 116USD. When you are in Ropi, it is so easy to make the experience of the value of the donkey. Donkey helps so many people to go and fetch water from the distribution point. But it is also sad to realize how much Donkey is unwell treated by its driver or owner. Sometimes, Donkey is not capable to walk properly because of carrying a good many kilos. Nevertheless, for the owner or the driver, that tiredness is not their business. The driver objective is to beat the animal and force it to continue walking as far as the arrival. There is unawareness of animal rights in the mind of some people. In the other side, Donkey is a strange animal. The negative aspect which I am always learning from the donkey is its pigheadness or obstinacy. It never crossed my mind. The donkey does not fear the horn. If a donkey goes across the road, there is no need or interest to accelerate or to hoot. Donkey struts around and behaves as if it is the owner of the road. It seems to be deaf animal. Donkey never fears the cars. That is why it is easily and frequently killed by cars. In general, Donkeys are good assets for our people. Oh Donkey!!! How lucrative are you for your owner and headache for us, cars drivers!
May your name be praised and honoured for ever, Almighty Father, for the beauty of your creation, Amen!
{mosimage}
