Happy Thanksgiving!!

October 10, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 Kevin and I have even found a way to celebrate it here!  Last week we went into town and bought a bunch of groceries from the ladies at the market (and one guy who had the most delicious baguettes!)  We then came home and inquired about where we could get a chicken.  Jefferson, one of the security guards here, lives in the house with a ton of other families, right in front of us and they had chickens to sell, so we arranged to have one for Saturday.  Saturday rolled around and a woman came to our door and when we answered we were presented with the live chicken we were planning on eating that evening!  We then asked if they could kill and clean the chicken for us as we did not want to do it, and really don’t know how (and have no real desire to learn!)  We watched out of our window as a man next door took the chicken and amongst a great deal of squawking there was a swift swipe with a knife, and our dinner was dead.  A couple of hours later we got the chicken, which was in pieces with an egg and the liver and some orange ball things that we didn’t know what they were (we threw these out!)  We also made mashed potatoes (the potatoes are not the same as at home and are sweeter here, almost a mix between a yam and a potato but still white), squash, and a surprisingly good stuffing considering the lack of necessary spices!  So last night Kevy and I ate our delicious dinner, drank wine and said thank you to the dead chicken on our plate.  Oh and I don’t know who of those reading has eaten chicken that is truly local and who has been active but the meat was far less than those sold at home and it was much tougher, but good all the same.  This made us think once again about what hormones must be pumped into the food we eat to make it that big and tender! 

Also as I write this I am comfortably perched on our new living room furniture!!  We got two arm chairs, a small couch and a coffee table all made of bamboo, which is donned with foam cushions covered in striped neon green and white fabric with bright pink flowers all over it and writing that says star.  Weird I know.  We did not get to choose the fabric but it certainly adds colour to our place! 

Aside from this the week has been fairly dull.  It was payday here finally (though they forgot to add me to the payroll so I didn’t get paid yet for September but should soon) and the rest of the staff finally got paid for last month and we are now up to date with that which is a relief!  Everyone’s spirits are up and our dam construction project in Samay is complete and the Garmu dam will be complete by the end of this week, so progress is being made.  I am going into the field tomorrow to see some of our communities and I am looking forward to that.  I also attended a meeting on Friday with representatives from all of the agricultural focused organizations in Bong County where we update one another on our activities and offer suggestions, ask questions etc.  This meeting lasted 2.5 hours as everyone often got sidetracked into tense debates about how development should be done here, criticising some of the other’s approaches.  It is interesting to get to hear what people think here and compare that to what I was learning last year. 

Kevin and I also were given a big bunch of plantains by our cleaner Judy this week and our guard Joe gave us 4 coconuts.  We cracked some open and drank the juice until Kevy knocked over the glass we poured it into!  Oh and due to the crazy heat here, combined with Kevin’s broken beard trimmer, he shaved off his beard!!  It has been a long time since we have seen his face beardless!  He has also been helping Joe build a garden on the property where Joe is going to plant water greens and potato greens, so that has been a nice thing for him to do. 

Well that is basically it for our week!  I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving, we will be thinking of you all!!