I picked up my rations but decided not to prepare them since I already had prepared food left over from the day before, and I thought it would be better if I took these unprepared rations with me upriver.
The house was empty. I was the first to return, and I think it was the first time that I became aware of the foul smell of the place. The stink of men’s bodies, unwashed in months, the sickening odor of rotting pieces of discarded meat, the musty, damp stench of our straw bedding was overpowering. Yet, in spite of this, I took out the uneaten portions of yesterday’s rations from my pouch and began eating them.
The meat had started to become rancid and the cornbread stale, but I forced it down since it was a punishable crime in the colony to waste rations. I fought back the sickness that
