And tonight for supper...

Chicken! I woke up today, a very normal day in Accra. I drank some water. I drank some tea. I did my stretches. I checked my email. I took a shower. I ate some oatmeal. It was all very normal until the chickens. Rahsheed and two of his cousins took Dipesh, John, Ally, and me to a little place nearby where we bought two chickens for 13,000 cedis (about $13). When we got there, the chickens were inside a large wooden crate. When we left, Mortimer and Andrew Jackson (names provided by Dipesh) were in our hands as we walked down the street. Alright, I'll be honest. I held the chickens, but I didn't carry them back. They vomited or something on my foot, as well as Dipesh's foot. Dipesh also got some chicken poo on his hands as well. Haha.

So we walked the chickens back to Rahsheed's house. This is where the fun really began. One of Rahsheed's cousins dug up a little dirt from an area on the ground. Then Rahsheed held the body of the chicken while his cousin held the head. Then the knife came down on the chicken's throat and the blood started to flow. The chicken shook around a bit as its life slowly flowed out of its neck. They guys threw it on the ground, its head twisted onto its back, its eyes completely pale and glazed, devoid of any life. The same happened with the second chicken, and while it was happening, the first chicken's legs kept moving around. The movement was controlled by the chickens nerves, not its consciousness (since it had none). Then we put the chickens in a large bowl and we all gathered around them. Next we poured boiling water over the chickens. The boiling water makes it easier to get the feathers off. After that, we pulled out the feathers (although it was sort of like scraping because the water made it easier) with our bare hands and threw them in a bucket. Some were a bit more difficult to get out, so we had to pull those individually. Sometimes little spots of blood would show up on the chicken, or on my hands. The whole time blackish red blood would leak from the chicken's throat and drip into the bowl or on the cement ground or on Ally's legs. After all the feathers were gone, the chickens looked a little more like what I'm used to eating (with the exception of the dangling bloody head part). Then Rasheed cut the heads and the feet off of the chicken. Then we put the chickens into a plastic bag and headed back to Church.

Here the guys showed us how to cut the chicken apart and remove its organ. I remember the heart, the throat, the intestines, and the gizzard, but the other stuff was just random unidentified innerds. After they were done cutting the chicken, there were random green liquids and yellow chunks of god-knows-what on the counter. And so now, the counter's clean and we're ready to cook those chickens with some lemon and garlic. We're also having potatoes, roasted veggies, and fruit. I personally am very excited, although the eating probably won't take place for another three or four hours. All in good time.

Pictures to come soon!