23 November 2005

A turkey has taken over our Rebecca’s life.

I know what you’re thinking, but actually, we’re hosting Thanksgiving tomorrow. Twelve people, including two Japanese, a Swiss woman who in a former life was an au pair in Pelham, an Omani woman who grew up in Rwanda, a Brit and a Kenyan. The rest are garden variety American. It’s a very international Thanksgiving, no.

So the turkey is now brining in our fridge, neck down in a bag. That means that our washing bucket is in there. Fortunately our water has worked all week. I probably just jinxed it. It also means that shelves and racks that were in our refrigerator are now scattered all around the kitchen. Between those and the extra food we have lying around I think Claude may have a heart attack.

Rebecca has been incredibly brave during this whole process. The bird was dead, plucked and headless when we picked it up. But she cleaned out the insides: the heart, liver and what either were kidneys, gizzards or, my contention, testicles, were still inside. She chopped off the neck using our dull kitchen knife. All in all, she’s handled a lot of blood. I’ve cheered her on. It’s the reverse of our bug arrangement, where I’m responsible for killing and she handles clean up.

We’re making stuffing and sweet potato latkes (her idea). The International Committee of the Red Cross, who live up the street and have a bitchin’ pool table, is bringing veggies. Sean, Bec’s boss, is on mashed potatoes. We’re assuming he’s too busy to make them himself, not that he’s afraid to cook. Others are bringing desert, although we’re making an apple pie. It should be great fun.

The turkeys here don’t take steroids. There isn’t much breast meat. But they are free range. There’s a good chance it was walking around near our house before it came inside.

It feels a bit warm to be Thanksgiving, but hey, we’re in Africa. And, Rebecca doesn’t have the day off tomorrow. She’s leaving early, but she had Columbus Day off. Who cares about Columbus Day?

So, have a happy Thanksgiving.

Before you go and stuff yourselves, you’re going to get two stories. One is the departure of Father Guy. The other is the first one I wrote when we got here. Sure, it’s been about three months. But hey, it’s only news. That means there’s only one more lying around the Catholic News Service waiting to be published.

Father Theunis: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0506673.htm

Rural AIDS: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0506683.htm
The response to my query about biogas has been disappointing. Who out there would use it?