I found myself carrying a chicken…

By: Cindy

Anyone that knows me well knows that I abhore birds of all kinds. Big or small, colorful or ugly, chickens or parrots. There is just something about those feather-clad creatures that scares the bejeebers out of me. They are welcome to toodle around the yard or in the trees all they want. But, please, oh, please do not come close to me! Unfortunately, today was apparently the day that I was supposed to face my fears.

It all started out innocent enough. We were scheduled to have our first Lorakau women’s Bible study at about 1pm. However, Tess came by the house to say that they just found out that an Abu (older man of the village) was in Port Vila having emergency bladder surgery (to my understanding) and was at the hospital in poor condition. Due to that occurance, the village family gathered together to make laplap and other local foods for the afternoon meal together. Therefore, the women asked to postpone our study until next week. I was disappointed, but I understood. These family gatherings, especially at times like this, are important to the family of the sick. Instead of the women coming to our house to study, I decided to follow Tess to the house where they were meeting and offered to say a prayer on behalf of the sick Abu. I also took along with me Kaela, and a sack full of susut, rice, and taro root to offer for my “sorry”.

The beginning of this visit went as expected. The women all chattered back and forth in Tanna language (while I had no clue what they were saying) then, asked me to say the prayer. After offering the prayer for the Abu, it happened that word came from Vila saying that he had woke up from the anesthesia and was doing much better (to which we were all thankful)!

Not long after, the Abu-man’s wife came over. I do not know her actual name since they all just referred to her as Abu (which is also a term used for an older woman). Anyway, she brought me a chicken. Oh joy. Not that I wasn’t thankful for her “thank you for coming” gift – but, I KNEW I was going to have to somehow get the bird back home. And in the back of my mind I was hoping I could just pawn the task off onto my six-year-old. I secretly wanted Kaela to beg to carry the tied up chicken home, in which case I would “reluctantly” agree. But, no such luck. Kaela wanted no part of it and I was trying my best not to look like the wimpy white woman in front of all these no-nonsense Ni-Van women. So, I psyched myself up and gave the chicken a tentative touch on the back and for the first time ever dared to touch the feet. They weren’t as bad as I had imagined…kind of wrinkly and smooth, but still gross. Chicken feet are just gross.

It wasn’t much longer and Tess was ready to leave which meant I had to make my departure as well. And with Tess having a baby and toddler in tow I couldn’t exactly expect her to carry the chicken home for me…as it turns out she was only going part of the way back anyway. It was all up to me – heaven help me! And, so, much to my dismay I found myself carrying a chicken upside down by its legs and hoping against all hope that it would dangle there perfectly still until I could get home. Which it did. Thank goodness!!! However, once I got home, I neglected to take notice of the dog nearby. Woops. The dog saw the chicken dangling there and immediatley headed over to us for a sniff. It was at that point that the chicken was through with dangling there and started squawking and twisting this way and that, flapping its wings (my nightmare!). And what did I do? Did I lay the chicken down gently or pass it off to Aaron? No, of course not. I did the first thing that came to my mind once it started moving. I dropped the chicken on its head.

Fortunatly for it, its neck didn’t break. I would have felt bad killing off a thank-you gift five minutes after receiving it. Thankfully, Aaron took over from there and I am not any more a bird lover now than I was before. If I had to