Chicken Licken

We slaughtered our first chicken last night. Chickens take a while to die, even when their heads are cut off. We didn't let ours run around, though, despite my curiousity about seeing it run around with no head. We held it down while it kicked and squirmed for a few minutes.

Our friend Joyce gave us a lesson on how to pluck off all the feathers and clean it. Zimbabweans eat much more of a chicken than I would have ever thought possible. We cleaned the head, feet, organs and even the intestines. It was quite a messy process, but we now know how to prepare a live chicken for cooking. The process was made much more difficult due to the fact that we had to do this by candlelight, as we had no electricity in the evening. In case you're wondering, we gave away the head, feet and intestines. We've eaten cow intestines a few times, but the chicken intestines didn't really appeal to me and our friend seemed to be keen on them.

Rochelle's major role in the slaughter was taking photos, but I think she only managed to take two or three. For some reason she didn't feel like cutting up the chicken or pulling out feathers or squeezing out the contents of the chicken's stomach or intestines. But she didn't run away.

It's been interesting to live in Zimbabwe and gain a better perspective on where food comes from. We've grown our own vegetables and we've killed a cow and a chicken and some fish. In Canada, you just go to the supermarket and buy your vegetables (sometimes already washed, peeled and cut up) and prepared meat and poultry (cleaned and packaged). It's easy to forget what's involved in preparing food and you also don't think or wonder about where the food is coming from. We also bought some fresh eggs yesterday, which still had feathers and chicken poo stuck to them.

We are spending the next three days in Chiweshe, including two at a corps near Howard Hospital. Hopefully we'll be able to see Paul and Pedrinah Thistle while we are there. We also hope to get some cow manure for our garden. We live an interesting life.

On my way home yesterday I realized that my run across Zimbabwe plan may have a few snags. One significant concern would be the first portion of the journey where I would be running along a highway that passes through a large national park. In Canada, that wouldn't be a big deal. But this Zimbabwean national park has lions and elephants, both of which I've seen by the road as I've driven by. It may not be too wise to try running along that route...

After much hesitation and resistence, I finally broke down and joined Facebook this morning. By lunchtime, however, it had already caused me too much social chaos so I terminated my account. I have enough trouble responding to emails or writing blogs...