What's for dinner?

In all of my travels the thing I’m most curious about is how people live. I always wonder what the inside of people’s houses look like and how what is life like. How do they cook, do laundry all of the daily tasks.

Nunu’s is from the “suburbs” of Maputo and he is staying with his parents while we are working here. He asked me if I’d like to come to his house one day and I jumped at the chance!

Sometimes I’m even surprised at my own reactions and this was one of those occasions…  when Nunu asked, my actual response was, “can we kill a chicken?!” I’m not a hunter and I’ve never killed anything and then eaten it. This is the way of life here in Mozambique and something I’ve been really curious about.

Buying a live chicken is 100 MTN ($3.50), I think last year when I bought frozen chickens in Pemba they cost like 300 MTN. Chicken is a luxury and not often eaten because of the cost… to a local they would probably think I was crazy if I brought over a frozen chicken.

We arrive at the house just after 1:00. While the house is similar to many that I’ve seen in Moz, the land is different. It’s obvious that someone has a very green thumb. Even the “fence” that surrounds the property is of shrubs. As you enter there is a path with little plants on each side. The tour includes which fruit grow on the trees. If I remember correctly there are mango, lime, orange and palm (coconut) trees. I even notice a new tree that is encircled by cinder blocks, for protection. There are also various plants in the ground… sweet potatoes are the only one I can remember.

Entrance Gate

Entrance path, with house in the background.

Protected baby tree =)

The house itself is very simple. As you are walking in on what we would call a porch is the kitchen, or at least the part of the kitchen that all of the cooking is done in. It is entirely to hot to cook inside here in Moz. It’s a three room house with one master bedroom, one spare bedroom (which is also used for storage of some kitchen items) and a living room/kitchen. The kitchen half has a freezer, counter and storage bins for fruits and vegetables. The Living room half has 2 (leather looking) love seats and one matching chair. There is a small tv sitting on top of a big chest.

The house... I love this kind of stuff!

From the outside I can see where the window openings were blocked up and there is just small spaces at the top. Windows in Moz are a luxury item, because you can’t just have a simple screen (people would cut it open). You at least need steel bars and a screen, glass to keep the rain out is nice but not necessary… and I think the local would get cold at night if they had to always have windows open. Anyway, not many people have windows in Moz because they don’t want their things to be stolen.

I sit on one of the couches and I just feel the heat. I ask if we can move outside. The yard is so beautiful and offers so much shade AND a beautiful breeze.

Yard to the left (as you enter) of the entrance path.

I offered to pay for our meal… I figured chicken wouldn’t be on the menu except since I requested it. Maria heads out to the market and before I know it she is back with the chicken. She corners it in a small area in the kitchen and gets busy getting the fire and a few other things going.

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WARNGING: Stop reading now if you don’t want read the details about the chicken. Skip to the “WARNING OVER” below.

Nunu eventually tells me it’s time to kill the chicken. I don’t actually want to kill it, I just want to be part of the process. Nunu takes the chicken by the wings but he is waiting for the knife. I think this is the part that would be hard for me… he affectionately strokes the birds belly. When Maria comes out with the knife, he looks up at me and says, “I haven’t done this in awhile, this is the hard part.”

One last belly rub.

I’m surprised I’m able to watch. There isn’t much blood but the bird did poop on Nunu’s shoe! As soon as he is done Maria comes over and takes the bird. She sticks it in a large plastic bowl and using a kettle full of boiling water, she starts cleaning the bird… it’s body reacts to the water. That was strange, I’ve heard of a chicken running around with it’s head cut off, but to see a headless chicken moving is just strange!

I wanted to help some with the preparing of the chicken, but I always forget how hard a language barrier can be. So I just sit and watch Maria stand bent at the waste plucking the feathers off the chicken. But she must get how curious I am… she tells Nunu to tell me to come help AND I think she even tells him to take pictures!

Once again I surprise myself and dig right in pulling feathers, Maria is a little intimidating… you can tell this isn’t her first rodeo, but she is encouraging and we laugh and enjoy ourselves. She makes it all looks so easy and the bird is naked within 10 minutes tops.

Plucking feathers with Maria... and I'm still smiling!

When we are all done, I look at the bird in the bowl… if it didn’t have feet it would be no different than what we are used to. She cuts the feet off, I find it kinda interesting and think to myself, “oh now that looks like a chicken leg.”

WARNING OVER

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At this point the bird in the bowl looks no different than if we had bought him at the store. Next Maria is on to make a marinara for the bird. I love to watch her work… all her movements are so rhythmic and precise.

First she cuts a coconut in half and she lets me drink the milk. It’s better than I recall coconut milk being. She then sits on this little stool with some sort of a contraption sticking out of the side. It’s like a spoon gone wrong, or better yet like a spork (spoon/fork). She starts scraping out the inside of the coconut. She is like a machine, only stopping every once in awhile to see if she has scraped to the brown.

Maria shaving out the center of the coconut.

She picks about four limes from the tree and cuts them in half. She squeezes the limes into the coconut scraping using her left hand like a strainer to catch the seeds. She also dices up some garlic adding it to the mixture. With her hands she mixes the coconut scrapings, garlic and limes. Mashing all the ingredients together. Then she picks up the coconut and starts squeezing out all the juice.

The chicken has been cut so that it will lay flat in a pot. Maria also makes cuts deep into the meat. The juice is poured all over and some of the coconut scraping and juice are put in the cuts. With this the bird is ready to be cooked.

Chicken cooking in the coconut/lime/garlic rub.

After the bird was cooked through, Maria put it in this
contraption over the store to grill it a bit. She asked me if
I thought it was browned enough and so I flipped it.

With precision, I watch as Maria peals and slices potatoes. She also peals a carrot and cucumber. She is persistent in asking for my help, not that I really do much, but I appreciate her efforts. And it’s interesting seeing how much goes into making a meal.

Potatoes cooked in a little oil... so yummy!

Official taste tester of the day... Maria insisted I sample
everything to make sure it was cooked to my liking.

In the end we feast on chicken, potatoes (fried in a bit of oil, not quite a French fry, but close), rice, and salad (cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and oil). I’m surprised by the chicken, while it tasted amazing (I love lime!) it wasn’t quite as tender as I would have imagined. I thought if anything the chicken would be more tender than what I’m used to, since it was so fresh.

When I asked to kill a chicken, it was one of those things where immediately I wished I could take it back. I’m not a very adventurous eater and I really didn’t know if I would be able to eat something that I had seen killed. I think so much of it has to do with where I am. I can’t even imagine trying to explain no I can’t eat that because it used to be alive. It would be like if you went to a lot of trouble to prepared a special meal for a guest and when you all got seated at the table the guest told you that they couldn’t eat it because you bought it at the store.

I’ll tell you one thing thought, I was beyond thrilled that there were no gizzards or livers served… cause this story may have ended on a completely different note!

Prayers and such:
My blog is way behind, almost 2 weeks (I was sick for 4 days and without the net for 5 days before that, so I've been playing catch up). So to catch you up to speed. I'm still in Maputo. I'll be blogging shortly to explain why, but the short version is that Nunu and I are trying to get some really important paperwork turned in. I'm really, really, really hoping we can leave this Saturday to travel to Pemba. Above all I want to be where I'm needed and where God wants me, but I'd really love to be up in Pemba.
- If you could be praying that we would get all the documents we need, to get the papers filed, and that we would be in front of the right people at the right time (as for one paper we've been told 4 different thing about what department it needs to be filed at, different department in different building in different parts of town).
- Nothing here is easy. So I don't even know what to ask for other than that doors be opened and that God prepare the perfect path for the documents we need to turn in.
- That Nunu and I would be on a bus to Pemba on Saturday.
- As always for continued health.