A New Experience

Yesterday, I was invited by our neighbor, Tamara, to go to her house and help her kill her chickens.  I had told her that I wanted to learn how to do it, so she invited me so that she could teach me. After, she showed me how to prepare it and how to take out all of the insides. I killed two, and she killed eight! After, she made a big pot of chicken soup, or Albóndigas as they call it.  I was kind of nervous about the whole thing because I have never killed an animal.  Also, you can’t approach it in a timid way. Tamara told me to do it “sin miedo” which means “without fear”, that way you don’t just injure the animal and let if suffer. In the states, we can buy our chickens already prepared and ready to cook. Here, it’s different. While the people still can just buy their meat from Pali, the local grocery store, many of them raise their own animals and kill them themselves. After we finished killing the chickens and we were taking out the feathers, I was realizing the intensity of the whole process behind being able to eat a chicken. It’s hard work. It is so easy to go to the grocery store and buy a chicken already prepared.  For that, I really appreciate that experience. It’s these experiences that I love because what is a way of life for the Nicaraguans would seem something out of the ordinary for us Americans. I also love that the Nicaraguans are willing to teach us their way of doing things. Tamara took time out for me and taught me how to do something that I otherwise would never have learned or even desired to learn.