January 31, 2001 Morning. Last night I took part in two chickens sacrificing their lives so that we may live. After you have thanked the chicken profusely and fully appreciated the gravity of what you are doing it is time to turn a live bird into food. The PC term is “dress a chicken.” Here are the steps to butchering a chicken for you city boys (like me):

1) Grab the wing ends and the and the feet and pull them together so you can hold it all with one hand. The head should be held down by your foot or another person. It is important to have a flat, stable wood surface underneath the neck to make a clean chop! Chop! 2) In a pot full of boiling water dip or insert the bird, pull out all the feathers, pull the beak off, peel off the outer skin of the feet. 3) Take bird to an open fire and char the outside of the body briefly to seal it. 4) With hands only follow the digestive tract of the chicken down through the inside of the neck and pull everything out gently without breaking or cutting any of the organs and making sure not to spill any of the juices inside the digestive tract organs into the body cavity.

5) Wash out body cavity of bird with boiling water. Our chicken was prepared with a sauce made of cumin seeds, garlic, salt, tomatoes (cherry tomatoes and just a little), water and chili pepper. The food was delicious and we had a good sleep. It appeared last night that Christophe was in a super-pissy mood, Vincent rises up to the challenge of a crises, Sylvie the nun is a realist (cautious) in regard to human behavior, our host (Lasman Prasad Niraula) was a bit of a scamp due to his asking for “just a little more $” – do we want to pay extra for alcahol, how about we give him more $ etc. His friend, who held my hand for an extra-long time when we met, was smart but was also working the “lets give us a bit of $” angle. This Tolua valley is much warmer than any previous day on the trek due to its middle canyon wall position (e.g. halfway up the valley wall from the river to the peak of the ridge). I am much more at peace today due to having spoken to my parents yesterday. Perhaps I will call again if there is a phone between here and our road-exit city. This afternoon we may bed in Halesi! Next Entry

 

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