Saturday afternoon we saw how chicken gets prepared a la Cameroun. Andrew’s host mommy, Patricia, raises chickens so she showed us how it is done. First we caught the chickens… by chasing them around the yard. Then they got their heads cut off. This was pretty awful because their muscles kept spasming after their heads were cut off so it seemed like they were still alive. Then they were dunked in hot water and we plucked out the feathers. I think they were cleaned off again after this. Then they got sliced up. So, when Patricia was cutting the thigh and the wing pieces it looked like an American chicken. But then she pulled out the intestines and all the inner organs. Apparently the pancreas? Is the best part of the chicken and only men in Cameroun are allowed to eat it.
I’m using the term “we” pretty loosely here, all I was able to help with was pulling out a couple of feathers. I feel like since I eat chicken I should have been able to kill one. Especially considering that these Camerounian chickens lived a pretty good life compared to typical American chickens. They are free range, (literally there are chickens walking around all over the place I don’t understand how anyone keeps track of them) and unhormonized . But, I definitely do not see myself killing and cooking a chicken. Maybe I need to become a vegetarian? Unfortunately the North is not the place to become one. Two volunteers who are assigned up there were vegetarians before site visit and not anymore. Apparently during some times of the year, meat is practically the only thing available. I am just refusing to believe that right now. There are so many delicious things available in the center of the country, it doesn’t make any sense that none of these products would find their way up to the north. On a more positive note, guava season has begun and they are delicious.
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