Rainin Chickens

Sorry for the bad pun, but the title is a combination of what today was made up of.  It started raining around 11:00pm last night and it just kept on raining.  There was a group of 6 or 7 intrepid chicken killers who went out to the "farm" last night to start killing and cleaning 200 chickens for today's cutting session, and they managed to get them all killed, cleaned and put on ice, but there was so much rain that they were not able to get into town this morning as planned.  The normally small river that has to be crossed to get out to the farm was up to waist high and the the clay hill on the side of it was so slippery that there was no crossing while the rain was till coming.

In the city, the streets were pretty much flooded and all the water channels they have on the main streets were full of water as well, and it took about 20 minutes of waiting in the rain for our taxi this morning since they were so busy.

The boys and I spent the morning putting boxes together and cutting steam holes in them in for the delivery of the meals on the 24th while we waited on word from the chicken crew.  Melody and Jordan helped out with some of the little kids and pitched in on the boxes where they could as well.  Each box needed to be taped together and have two small holes per side cut in them to prevent the steam from the meals making the boxes too soggy on delivery day.

At lunch, we went to Corrina's and waited for word from the chicken crew on whether they would be able to make it in.  We got the call around 1:00 that they were on their way but it took over two and a half hours to get through what is normally a 45 minute drive because they had to basically build part of a road where it had been somewhat washed away.  Once they arrived, we set to work cutting each chicken into 10 pieces and dunking them in the marinade and then bagging them in bags of 50 pieces each.  I can honestly say I have never seen so many dead chickens in one place at one time, 

After a quick lesson in the Bolivian chicken butchering method (somewhat different from the French method I am familiar with), I helped out as best I could.  These ladies have obviously cut many more chickens apart in their lives than I have because they would get through two for every one I managed to do and I am pretty good with meat cutting if I do say so myself.  We managed to get through all 200 chickens in just under two hours.

While Melody helped out with finishing the packaging of the chicken pieces, Heidi, the boys and I went to get all the propane tanks filled that we need for tomorrow and the 24th.  They have a pretty good system here where you take your propane tanks to the depot, and just trade them in for filled ones.  No waiting around for the someone to fill the tanks!!

We finished up for the day, and then went out for supper around 8:00 and now its time to hit the hay.  Tomorrow will be a LONG day of grabbing the potatoes and rice, and starting to cook all the chickens etc.