Chicken Dominican Style

I'm sitting in probably the most unlikely place to be using the internet right now. Just about to head back to Santo Domingo after my Volunteer visit and wanted to share a little sumin' sumin'. This is what I wrote in my journal on the 22nd...

I could be really grossed out right now. And actually I guess I should be grossed out right now. See this is what's up. I'm visiting a real life Peace Corps Volunteer this week. Just seeing what life is really like in the PC, all the day to day kind of stuff. All I can say is that this is the Real Deal. I've realized I'm getting pampered at my host families house. I will be living this life of luxgery (well, I guess luxgery it's relative) for the next 2 and a half months until I move to my own site. This visit has just made me much more psyched to get going with my own site and own projects. Between training, my host family, and the fact that I feel about 8 yrs old when I speak Spanish I am ready to grow up and leave the nest. But anyway to the part that should have made me puke.

Me and my real life Peace Corps Volunteer went out to gather up supplies for lunch. We were able to get our hands on some beans, a few vegies, but we needed some chicken. We found some without any problem, its just that the chicken wasn't exactly where I would expect to buy chicken. We walk up to this corner and my rlPCV starts chatting it up with this lady who proceeds to whip out a whole chicken from a bag. This headless chicken had the longest neck I've ever seen. It also still had its feet, toes, and all internal organs. The lady then whips out this huge machete, takes a few full swings and chops up this whole chicken Jujitsu style. Before I knew what to think about the whole ordeal we're off with a bag full of chicken parts, including a huge chicken foot. I guess, this was all fine and dandy and would have been enough for me.

We get back home and have to prepare this chicken. We had to pull out some extra feathers, remove various organs (heart, lungs, liver, etc.), and cut up these ginormous toes into more bit size pieces. After adding the chicken to an amazing beans and rice dish it turned out to be an excellent lunch. Had I been in the states, I would have given up way before we got to the feathers but this is the DR and if I want to survive there are things I just have to not think about. Freshly killed, whole chickens with feathers and toes being one.