Chicken, it’s what’s for dinner…and the constant threat of salmonella poisoning

¿Qué Paso?:

Weather update: Octubre is the rainy month. What does this mean for me? Well, my clothes are in a constant state of molding and my chances of contracting an unknown foot disease from stepping in puddles has just increased 10 fold!

My radio is currently tuned to: Daddy Yankee, my students just can’t get enough of this guy! They just love his music and therefore I must learn to love his music too.

Interesting things that have happened on the bus: People like to touch my hair…I feel like a doll or dog because they will pet my head! Oh well!

Interesting question I’ve been asked: “Is your mom as pale as you are? Your family must go through a lot of sunscreen.”

An observation I’ve made: People here pump gas and don’t bother to turn off their car while gas is flowing into their vehicle. Dangerous?…perhaps. On the plus side, it is a speedier exit from the gas station (no timely hassling with the ignition turning the car on and off). However, isn’t there a possibility the car could blow up?

Recent purchase: I bought raw chicken in the market (from the meat seller) and noticed that they also were selling big cloves of garlic. So I also asked the vendor to include a few cloves of garlic, which he proceeded to throw into the same bag as my uncooked, very raw, chicken meat. My reaction: “OH NO…cross contamination….not salmonella poisoning!!” The idea of cross contamination is non-existent in Nicaragua. But being an American germo-phobe I freaked! I decided to save the garlic by throwing it into a soup (I don’t waste ANYTHING)…I just boiled away the salmonella poising!

Close, but no cigar: I almost bought “street shrimp,” which raw shrimp sold door to door. But I had a last minute change of mind, as I considered the high probability that the shrimp has not been refrigerated for at least 5 hours…while the vendor is walking the shrimp through the streets with the sweltering sun beating down on the scrumptious crustaceans. I suppose I have avoided a minor case of food poisoning but I have to ask myself was it worth it?

Recipe update: I will be posting a new recipe in 2 weeks, as my cooking class was canceled this past week and was rescheduled for 15 Octubre.

The machismo is starting to wear on me a bit. It gets to be a bit annoying when every time I walk out of my house I am hissed at or catcalled. I try to avoid large groups of men sitting together on street corners, but sometimes this is impossible and I must walk on by the group. I try to ignore most of it but here is a recap of what usually happens when I put on my “I cannot hear you” face:

1) First I hear the “hiss” (which I proceed to ignore…and I continue walking)

2) Next a clicking sound emits from their mouths (I still don’t pay any attention)

3) Of course, the men must yell out something obscene at me in Spanish

4) If they still don’t get my attention, they resort to yelling out something obscene in English

5) Still no reaction from me…then sometimes they finally resort to talking to me face to face…using actual words and sentences!!! Amazing how using sentences instead of clicking and hissing at someone can initiate an actual conversation!

Yesterday, I had a visitor. It was the wife of one of my counterparts and she was hand delivering a note that was addressed to me, which was written by her husband, my counterpart. First of all, my counterpart lives 1 block from my house. Secondly, my counterpart also has my telephone number. Thirdly, I had a meeting with my counterpart the previous night. This being said, he sent his wife (on a bike) to deliver a handwritten note! The note read as follows (no translating needed, because he wrote it to me in English):

Hi Brie, I hope you are right I need that you are the teacher today I know you can, Today I’m gonna go to Leon and I want you bring an activity and develop it with student as a class. I need that you know much more to the students, and today is your day. I own you a present.

Teaching alone doesn’t scare me, actually I quite enjoy it, but I am here to work with the teachers. Luckily, I had already prepared for the class and I proceeded to give the students a mini-test in order to better assess their skills. I gave some simple directions at the beginning of class:

1) No talking to your friends

2) No cheating, eyes on your own paper

3) No calculators allowed

4) If you don’t understand a question just skip it

5) This is not a graded test and you have as much time to complete it as you need

Here is a brief sampling of the questions I asked on this test/questionnaire:

1) How old are you?

2) Do you have a job? If so, what do you do?

3) What do you like to do during your free time?

4) What does the word “business” mean to you?

5) What is 20% of 18?

6) What are your expectations for the coming year?

This test consisted of a mix of “get to know you questions” and a few basic questions about the subject of business. The result of this test session was rampant cheating!! Yes, even for the questions like “how old are you” and “do you have a job” the students had to look off of one another’s papers. One student didn’t answer those questions at all, and when I approached him about it he said he was going to answer later (which he eventually did, after looking off another student’s paper). No one in the class got the percentage question correct, because they all copied 1 student’s answer, which happened to be incorrect (20% of 18=1.11??). I do not want to insult the class’s abilities or intelligence, because I believe they are all capable and clever. It’s the culture of collective cheating that has to be stopped! Thank goodness they didn’t copy the same “name” or “age” on every paper!! Never the less, the outcome of the test was positive overall; I can now see how many responsibilities these kids have outside of class. Since this school is rather rural, all the students live on a farm. Therefore, they all have farm work, which can be tiring and occupy a lot of time. I also learned that most of my students range from 15 to 22; however, they are all in the same grade and the same class. To finish off the class, and leave the students in a good mood, we played a game. In fact, they loved the game so much that instead of going out to recess they stayed in the class to play a few more rounds. Overall, the questionnaire accomplished 2 objectives, I now know my students skills and their personal interests.

For my birthday, I received a lot of food gifts from my community, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I cannot say it enough, Nicaraguans are very generous people! However, the strangest food gift I received happened to still be alive. Yikes!! I went over to a counterpart’s home to chat and they told me they had a gift (regalo) for me. They asked my permission to go get the gift, and of course I said “sure.” They were gone for about 10 minutes in the backyard (I later realized they were attempting to “catch” my gift during this time period). Of course, my curiosity grew as the time elapsed and finally they came back with a LIVE chicken!! Instantaneously, my mouth drop opened and my eyes widened. My counterpart said, “Brie, I remember you told me that you liked chicken soup, you know I have a very good memory when it comes to these things.” True, I did tell all of my counterparts I liked chicken soup (I also said I liked beef and pig soup…and I just hope no one gives me a live cow or pig). My counterpart preceded to hand me the chicken, smiling proudly, I still stood in front of him with my mouth agape and thinking to myself: what I’m I going to do with this poor chicken? My counter partner then asked me, “You do know how to kill it, right?” I came back with a resounding, “No!?” And he said, “It’s easy, just have your neighbor help you!” So I walked home with the chicken bundled in my arms, and on the way home I was stopped by every person I walked past because they were all curious: Did the gringa buy this chicken? Is she going to eat the chicken? Does she know what a chicken is? I was graciously informed where to buy feed, how much to feed the chicken and most importantly I was told that if I didn’t tie my chicken up it would run away (which secretly I hoped it would do…save your own life chicken…run free into the wild). For a moment, I thought I would “Set my chicken free,” but then I changed my mind. I haven’t eaten chicken in over a month…and I do enjoy chicken…savory and tender…my mouth is watering now as I type this description. So, this Saturday I am having my neighbor kill my chicken and make chicken soup for everyone. I did consider keeping the poor chicken as a pet but I was then informed that 1) the dog at my house would eat the chicken and 2) This type of chicken is really rico (tasty). Therefore I can only say one thing, Buen provecho!

This is a picture of my chicken (before she was turned into soup). Don´t worry I don´t have an after picture!

Quick chicken update, I was just informed that my chicken is a little too small to eat and therefore I must go to the “chicken exchange” to swap her for a bigger bird. Also, I had a minor misunderstanding with one of my neighbors this afternoon. I thought they were asking me “what I like to eat”…and I responded, “chicken.” They adamantly refused this answer and shook their heads “no,” which left me awkwardly gawking and repeating, “what’s the problem with chicken?” Well, it turns out they were really asking me “what does your chicken like to eat.” The proper response to this question would have been rice or corn…imagine their astonishment when I told them I feed my chicken, chicken…Que horrible!