This post is not for children or the faint-of-heart.
This afternoon I joined group four to participate in their Service of Sacrificial Life. Which is just a euphemism for butchering 50 chickens.
Yes, I did say butchering. Uncle Timo, we call him, met us at the chicken barns at 1:30 and we "arrested" (another one of Timo's terms) 50 chickens, including a couple roosters. We stacked the crates of chickens on the front loader and we followed Uncle Timo to Manna House on campus, next to the kitchen. There were several stainless steel apparatus. One was to allow the chickens' blood to drain after we killed them, one pot of boiling water to dip them after they died, one to hot water blast the feathers off, four massive sinks, and three tables. I and one other girl didn't have the stomach to actually kill a chicken ourselves but everyone else in the group participated. Even my roommate, Sakura, killed five of the chickens. She told me she learned to do it in high school so she wasn't queasy about it.
The whole process was pretty gross but mostly what I did was cleaning out the insides and sorting the organs into bowls so we could store them in the freezer accordingly. Here at ARI they use %90 of the chicken. Most of the GI tract and the lungs are thrown away but many other organs are used in the kitchen (including the stomach, head, and feet).
Today I peeled a bucket of onions, handled chicken innards, and during food life we sprayed all the cabbages with wood vinegar to stave off the insects. So to say the least, the smell of my hands is absolutely repulsive.
Oh, and I got another new Buyo bite on my face last night, which made me bleed all over my shirt. (A Buyo is like a mosquito, only 100x worse. It can takes weeks to heal and itches like fire.)
When you face something new and offensive like Buyo or butchering chickens, here, people look at you with a big smile and say "Welcome to ARI!".
So this week has taught me to take the good with the bad and ugly and be grateful for it all... but I won't be eating chicken for a while.
Hello there, I'm reading this first thing this morning and I have no words at this time about your post. :) What do you do about the bug bite? Do they have a local preventitive? And a recommended medicine to get it to quit burning? I hope so! Take care and thanks for keeping us informed. Lots of love, Aunt Lisa.
ReplyDeleteI have been using an ointment for the bug bites but they still take a very long time to heal. For now I am trying to just ignore the itching sensation. It isn't so bad with the ointment on but if you get your hands wet or it begins to wear off then I notice it all over again.
ReplyDeleteThings really are pretty good here. Just venting sometimes so people know off all the differences between here and home.
You're hired! After the house and the goat fence next on our Farm Check-list is a chicken coop...And yes we will be raising them for the eggs AND the meat =) Good to know you'll have some experience! LoL
ReplyDeleteWe love you very much and hope that you are enjoying yourself as much as possible between buyo bites!
Keep up the good work and the posts...they're a comfort for us back at home!
And I thought I had a bad day. I can't believe you sorted "parts". If you could just bottle that eau de onion/chicken guts/vinegar, you could probably make a fortune. Chanel's Repulsion No. 5. Between that and your bleeding buggy face you must be a sight for sore eyes. I still love you, but just at a distance!
ReplyDelete-Mom
Hi, Sarah,
ReplyDeleteMaybe...maybe...if you had grown up butchering chickens you would still be able to eat chicken. In my childhood, my cousin, aunt, mom, and I used to butcher 35-50 chickens a day. And on butchering day, we would have fried chicken for lunch. That included the gizzard, heart, liver, and sometimes the feet, when the chickens were small. My siblings and I used to argue over who got the gizzard. My daughter, however, did not grow up with these experiences. She became a vegetarian after seeing me cut up a whole chicken that I bought at the grocery store! Sorry about your buyo bites. Love reading your postings.