Chris and I had quite the adventure for Thanksgiving. We went to visit a few fellow MCCers in the area of Moro Moro, a small town about 6 hours west (9 in bus) of the city. We left on Tuesday and returned on Friday. After arriving, we took a tour of the town (which took about 20 minutes☺) and on Wed, in the pouring rain, we got to see some water projects of a community called “the knife.” The project involves capping springs and then digging pipe lines to people’s houses. This particular project is administered by Krista and Brian, a couple living in the town of moro moro. On Thursday however, we woke up to a sunny day and were able to go out to “La Ahbra” (the only definition we found was a little valley) where another friend, Nate Harder lives. There we chopped wood (well, some of us….I chopped green beans☺) and began a fire in Nate’s clay stove. It took awhile since everything was wet, but the feast was definitely worth waiting for…complete with turkey, filling, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole (and of course, pumpkin pie and coffee).
One funny thing that happened is that we forgot the flour at Krista and Brian’s house (a short 20 km away) and since Nate had no flour, he got out the ole’ hand grinder and began grinding some wheat he had traded for some fruit he was growing. After about 3 passes through the grinder and then through the sifter, we had the half cup necessary for the gravy. It was all very yummy.
While we were eating, a friend of Nate’s shows up and asks if Nate can do him a favor. Nate does his best to get it out of him what it is he’ll be doing before he commits to it, but he can’t. So he says yes. He asks him to help him castrate his pig and asks if he knows how. Nate says he just knows how to hold down the feet, and Don Juan says that’ll do. As they walk out the door, Chris gets invited along, and Cesar (our director at MCC) and his two kids tag along and I send Brian with the camera. Well, as it has been retold to me (several times), Chris and Nate hold the feet while Don Juan works his magic. Cesar tries taking pictures, but is distracted by the angry, untied mother charging Nate and Chris, so he jumps into the pen and begins hitting her with a stick (still attempting to take pictures with the other hand, but not successfully). After the job is done, Don Juan covers the wound in ash (apparently a disinfectant), and then proceeds to shake everyones hand. Cesar’s 6 year old daughter was the most reluctant, but everyone managed to hold politeness over hygene. Even though I just witnessed the events by hearing the squeals of mother and child from afar, it will surely be a Thanksgiving for telling the grandchildren (or at least the nieces).
