Chickens and turkeys and roosters oh my (7/19/05)

Hmm, there always seems to be recurring themes. The one for the past few weeks has been chicken. Last Tuesday a very excited partner ran up to me and said that he's going to kill a chicken at noon. Excitement and murder together is not something I really understand but I figured I would go along. I didn’t think he would really kill the chicken. apparently he had mentioned to my host sister that he wanted to learn how to kill a chicken after a friend of his did it in the Dominican Republic and she found the prime chicken killer in the town, a lady that lives a few meters up the road. But killing a chicken is much harder than you'd think. First you have to catch the chicken. Dylan, my partner, had to grab it by the legs and then scoop it up quickly. The chicken didn't like this much and decided to crap all over him. I’m glad I was just in charge of filming this. Then we had to tie the chicken up, correction, the old lady and he had to tie it up. Then, she slit its throat. It was probably good she did it because he was turning green at this point. While I don't mean to be graphic, it was quite disturbing watching the kitties and dog sitting under the strung up chicken and waiting for the blood to drop on their heads. They kept trying to get at it and it was my job to swat at them until the old woman could get the chicken into boiling water so that we...yes, I do mean we, could pluck it. Why did I come along? Meanwhile, this very ugly chicken was pecking at my feet. I think he was blaming me for his friend's untimely death although I had nothing to do with that. Then the lady boiled the chicken for a few seconds and then handed it to me and expected me to pluck it. So, I plucked it while scouring at Dylan who had managed to stand far away from the most unpleasant smell. Boys, they ask to be destructive and then run away leaving the problem to someone else. I can think of many examples of this in history, mostly dealing with war. I however managed to escape before the tripe extraction began. Somehow I don't think I’ll be so lucky the next time the woman comes a calling.

But worse than the chickens are the turkeys. If you know me well you know that I hate all birds. Pigeons are on the top of this list but turkeys are gaining ground. They puff themselves up really big and then cluck at you while walking sideways. They also have their hand in destroying my attempts at doing laundry. The turkeys love walking under my drying clothes and pull them down. And yesterday, they were running into the apple tree in order to shake it and make the apples drop. When they are not being destructive they are being even more destructive (basically they were put on this earth for destructive purposes) as they knock over the garbage can to the latrine every day. See, you don't throw toilet paper in the latrine, you throw it into the trash and then burn it when the trash is full. The turkeys always seem to know when it is full because that's the only time they knock it over. Blast these turkeys.

When I’m not worrying about turkeys I’m running from the children of the corn. There is a group of 5 children who always exit the corn fields when I walk by. It’s sort of like the scene in the shining when they come out of the bushes (I’ve never seen the shining but I have seen the Simpsons' shinning and assume it's similar). The last time I walked by they begged for me to sing a song. It was 10 pm, way past my bedtime so I told them I would sing as I was walking away. I got about 10 meters down the road when I hear this band of miscreants running after me. Of course the corn fields are pitch black so it was kind of disturbing hearing screaming kids but not knowing where exactly they were. My flashlight was on the skits. When I finally got it working i could see the screaming voices. Then I turn back again after having picked up my step and they had disappeared, back into the cornfields. I think they need more supervision.

As for my projects, things are going great. The billboard has been moved to the auditorium and primed. I have gotten clearance from the town president for my drawing and will be drawing on the billboard this week. Then I will be taking my class of highly artistic kids to help me out. This billboard is going out on the highway. I think this is the most ambitious art project I’ve done to date and am quite excited about how it's looking. I’m also working with the union of community museums in hopes to teach the youth about the importance of their town so last Friday I took the young kids to the pyramid to take digital photos. I then accompanied one of the other volunteers with her class to the mountain top for their digital picture taking training. Then a group of boys declared themselves my body guards and took me on a hike that ended at a coyote den. The coyote den didn't bother me much but the scaling across the side of the mountain was nother story. I need to start remembering to take my tennis shoes for these excursions. They made sure I stayed alive. I didn't even slide down my backside this time. Probably a good thing because it would have taken awhile to get to the bottom. My bodyguards then found what I speculate to be an ancient artifact. These pop up every now and then. By the way, if you want to learn more about my town go to http://www.inah.gob.mx/zoar/htme/za01709.html.

I’m also having the kids gather legends and myths from the town and having them illustrate these stories. These will go into a compilation that I will be presenting to the town along with an art contest that anyone can participate in. I’m so proud of my kids. Some of them are amazing.

This weekend all the volunteers met in Oaxaca City for midterm. The three of us got there really early so that we could eat our rotisserie chicken. Sunday we went to Monte Alban which is a bigger set of pyramids. Then I went to this petrified waterfall that had the most amazing view. The bus ride up there was interesting though. It was a one lane dirt road that wound around the mountain. At the turns the bus was basically too big and was practically hanging off the cliff. To make matters worse, every time he shifted gears we would slide back. I was asleep for the first part but the screams of the supervisors woke me up. I was amused by the whole thing because the bus driver was so calm, handling the wheel with one hand. I decided to start a dance party at the back of the bus on the way down because there is no point in worrying about your impending doom. And since he was playing good merengue music, I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. So me and 3 others spent the hour ride down the mountain trying to dance merengue between bumps. At this point, it can't be worse flying off a cliff when dancing than when seated. So while most of the bus was terrified, I was having a blast.

Monday we spent the day enjoying the Gueleguetza, the dance festival that attracts people from all over the world. We met some great kids from London and this awesome guy from Guadalajara. We ended up bringing back the Guadalajaran with us to our town. He was a hot commodity since he's a masseuse. I milked that one for all it was worth. He’s on a year journey through central and part of South America. If I ever free myself from California state imprisonment, I will try to find him somewhere down south.

Anyway, I leave y'all with photos. I will be uploading more soon. This is through last week.

Oh, and it's not too late to send me snail mail although I guess all my friends are lazy. Anyway, I’ll be back in 3 weeks in case y'all were missing me!