Frogs:
Last week there was a frog hanging out in the bucket of water where the midwives wash their hands. We all had fun letting it hop around in the hallway before one of the receptionists picked it up and tossed it outside to move on with his little froggy life.
There are frogs that live in our bathroom. About three of them. They hang out and hopefully eat the mosquitoes. Lots of people in Cambodia eat frog, but my host family doesn’t.
Chickens:
Last week we also had a young chicken wandering the halls of the health center. This was one of those painfully ugly chickens stuck between cute little hatch lings and full grown chickens who have all their feathers. I followed the chicken around watching it eat bread crumbs left by little kids. The rest of the staff found my interest in the chicken to be very amusing and is still asking me about where the chicken went and what the chicken was doing.
This weekend my host mom was increasingly concerned about my lingering cold and informed me that the only way it was going to go away for good was to offer a chicken to the spirits. So there I was Saturday morning, I had just talked to family from home and put my laundry out to soak when a chicken emerged. My mom took me to the spirit house in the front of the house (a spirit house looks almost like a fancy bird house, it is a shrine and you will see them everywhere). We put the chicken, some dipping sauce, and a glass of water on the shrine and then my mom lit two sets of incense and handed me one. She prayed and then had me repeat a prayer after her for my health. The chicken was gone about 30 minutes later and became the soup we would eat for the next two days…
I will say that I am finally back to feeling 100% and far be it from me to turn down any offers of prayer from anyone for my health.
Babies:
Last week we had three more babies born at the health center. I’ve lost count by now but that’s a lot of babies!
Two days this week I went and helped with community outreach. Two of the nurses go to the smaller villages and bring vaccinations for the kids and vitamin a capsules. I was in charge of squirting vitamin A into the kids mouths. Some of the older kids were very good about it and opened their mouths, some of the younger ones would squirm and throw a fit while their moms lied and told them it was candy. Some of the babies spit it back at me.
At the health center there are a few reactions I get from the little kids: fear – they hide behind their mom like I have 3 heads and want to eat them, intrigue – they stare at me, and stare at me, they get their friends and stare at me some more, I try to talk to them, they run away and every so often I will get laughs and giggles, huge smiles and even a toddler waddling over for me to pick them up, this by far is my favorite reaction.
A few questions.
Was the chicken koshered when it gave it’s life to cure your cold?
Maybe it was just the chicken soup and not the ritual.
Has anyone asked you about your religious beliefs?
From your last comment, I ate a cricket leg once! It was too tiny to actually taste but I’m sure before my two years is up I will muster the courage to eat the whole thing, they aren’t hard to find.
This was most definitely not a kosher chicken. We eat some sort of chicken soup almost every day so I am personally of the opinion that it was my time to get better, my cold had run its course and I was bound to feel better this weekend regardless, but the chicken soup and ritual can’t hurt.
People do ask sometimes, but it’s not easy to explain. No one here knows what a Jew is! There is a Muslim community in Cambodia so when I try to explain my religion the best I can do is say that there is no Jesus in my religion, we don’t eat Pork, but we are not Cham (Muslim). If they have heard of Israel then I tell them it is Israel’s religion. Religion is one of the harder things for me to explain here so for the time being I am just enjoying the new experience of living in a country where religion and kingdom are one. Buddhism has an impact on everything here.
HI Brenda,
OK….you know I tried to be a vegetarian ~quite difficult for me ~ but then found a great article by the author of Animal Liberation, whose feelings evolved to eating animals as long as they had a quality of life. So free range chickens, wild fish etc, are now on my diet ( although not red meat ). SO , eating your sacrificial chicken to get better is ok by me….
Brenda. I LOVE your blog. I love even how your friends were intrigued you your fascination in watching a chicken run around in the building..
Your writings are just wonderful…….
should be required reading in High Schools!
love Aunt Nancy