After two flights, 18 hours, and thousands of miles, Frank and I have made it to Uganda! After all the praying, planning, and waiting - I can't believe that we're finally here!! It's so surreal to be back in Africa. I've missed it : ) It's even more surreal to meet my in-laws for the first time (I'll be meeting them this afternoon!) and to see Kels again after so long. Here are some pictures of my travels thus far:
Checking in
who do you think is more excited?
Turkish Air airplanes are so brightly colored that they will blind you.
seriously.
The view from where we're staying.
random animal skull
I'm so happy to finally be here. My husband is over the moon. Let's hope the excitement will shield the jet-lag!
This is for Stef Wisbrock who is sitting at home with her chicken just waiting for a "how to" so she can cut him up and eat lunch. Sorry to keep you waiting Stef.
This post is not going to be pretty. Consider this your warning. Or maybe you should consider the title your warning. I mean you chose to read a post about killing chickens right?
The first time I saw this happen I thought it was disturbing. I got over that fast. I really do think that in America we are too separated from our food source. When I see a chicken I dont think food. When I see some plastic wrapped deboned, deskinned, clorox rinsed meat, then I think food. Its just so wrong. You should watch Food Inc. Thats all I'm sayin.
Meet the victim. We named him Fred. He seemed nervous. Like he knew something...
It is highly recommended that you bond with the chicken and feed it snacks. If there is more than one chicken then definitely get them to race each other or put on some kind of fashion show competition. When I was a kid we used to do that with lobsters in new hampshire. We would name them, race them, and the winner got to go into the pot first. Lucky little lobster.
Give the chicken a knife for defense. I mean its only fair, you have a knife after all. It must be a fair fight.
Deno came out the victor. Wrestled that knife away from Fred like a pro!
Grasp the wings to prevent flappage.
Step on the feet if you dont want to be clawed.
Pull feathers out at the neck where you will be cutting.
And start cutting
And this is the kind of sad part. Let it bleed a little bit before you continue cutting. Then keep going until you get all the way through the neck.
Clean the knife on the birds feathers. Hopefully it gets a more thorough cleaning later. Also Deno wanted it noted that he did feel very bad for the chicken and that he was only doing this for the sake of the blog. (lies)
Soak the headless chicken (poor Fred) in hot water to make it easier to pull out the feathers.
Start pulling feathers. Dorcus had put on no pretense of feeling bad and was purely excited to eat Fred. Apparently the bonding time meant more to him than her.
Then, and this is important, make it do a little dance.
Stand on its head. No dignity.
And then have it play dead.
Finally lull the chicken into a false sense of security by having it lounge in a pot of water as if it were a bathtub.
Then cut it up! (That was said in Mitch Hedberg's voice, anyone else remember that bit?)
There seemed to be basically no rhyme or reason to the cutting except for the removing of legs and wings it was sort of just chopped. So I am going to trust that you can cut up your own chicken. Do not let me down.
Here was to be inserted a picture of finished cooked chicken. But it was eaten before I got the camera. Use your imagination. Can you see it?
My final piece of advice. If your chicken can do this then do not cut it up...
For a while, I have had a dream. And that dream has finally come to fruition. I now have instagram (which also implies that I have an iphone). I have been a fan of instagram ever since I learned of it. Every time I was around Kels, I would always sneakily (that's a lie. I'm not a very sneaky person.) slide my hand into her pocket or purse to grab her phone, so that I could take pictures. I know that Kels just shared some of her instagrams yesterday, so I hope you guys aren't sick of them...because there are going to be lots more pretty soon! Here are some that I've taken so far:
My Plants by the window - it's a jungle
the view from our balcony
a sunny Sunday afternoon
the rug in our bathroom-pretty colors
i love drinking out of mason jars!
You can stand under my umb-er-ella
ella ella
lunch time
my anniversary gift to frank: an authentic manchester united
soccer jersey with his name on it.
Our closet is OOC (out of control)
Not to be confused with OCD.
Frank and I finally feel like we're moving up in the world. I mean, getting an iphone is the epitome of adulthood in my book. Isn't it in yours? Who's in charge of the "cool list"? 'Cause we better be on it. F'sho.
p.s. Do you want to know something a w e s o m e? In the pursuit to make my instagram dreams come true, we got our iphone for FREE. That's right. free. Many thanks to the random IT guy at Judson : )
Hanging on the porch. This neighborhood kid calls me Kass in an attempt to say Kels. Sometimes she forgets to say the K. I think she might have all the neighborhood kids thinking my name is Ass.
I want to take this baby goat home and snuggle it. People here frown on that. It would have to be a secret snuggle.
Watching Deno play soccer. I frequently get distracted by the beautiful hills surrounding the pitch. Sometimes (all the time) I miss important plays and then later pretend I saw the whole thing.
Testing at the hospital. Sneakily taking phone pics. Must take some pics at work so people think I do actual work. Must keep up appearances.
My mother sent this card and said is reminded her of me. It is VERY me when I was 12. I love that to your parents you are not just you at your current age but you are you at every age. I think my mom picks the age she likes best and sticks with it. I was a great twelve year old. Things went downhill in the teen years. Sorry mom and dad. When Gladys saw the card she picked it up and said, "my pussycat!" in a loud whisper and then walked away with it.
Grace rolling chapatti. My manna. My lifeblood. The only food I could eat for the rest of my life. Lord you can make this fall from the sky anytime. I will leave a plate on the porch tonight.
Ok I understand bricking up the door so people can't hang out in your empty house. But whats with the giant unbricked windows? I mean I want to climb in just to prove a point.
Planting sweet potatoes in mounds.
Bags of grain. I feel so sneaky taking pictures at the market. I look at my phone then snap the pic and then put the phone to my ear and say hello? are you there? I am having bad reception I am not sneaking pictures of your produce. I would never.
Apples are tiny and freakishly expensive. I lurv them. I also love that I can read books on my ipad. I read the Hunger Games, very entertaining, and then wanted the next book in the series and bam 10 minutes later I had it. This is more impressive if you know that I am at least 2.5 hours away from a bookstore. 2.5 hours on a sweaty bus with chickens and children peeing on me. Seriously a child peed on both me and Deno last time we were on the bus.
He sinks like a rock but gosh he looks good on the side of the pool.
Oh the tough life we lead here in Jinja, the vacation capital of East Africa. After this picture was taken we suffered through some delicious Indian food and then endured hours of floating and splashing under the palm trees and the warm sun.
Do I live in Paradise? Yes yes I do. You should join me.
