Well, I never want to see another life-less, featherless chicken again and I have scratched 'butcher' off my list of dream jobs. But I think I'm at a chicken every 2 minutes for cutting speed, so I'd say thats progress (although I'm sure the Bolivian volunteers were at double or triple what I cut). The chickens came in entirely whole with everything attached but the feathers and we cut them into ten parts, then separated the innards. The hearts, livers, gizzards and necks for eating, the feet and heads to take home for the dogs and the rest to cook for Christmas on the streets.

Today we all sat together and ate a chopped heart, liver and scrabbled egg mixture with rice on the side. I took one bite, praying the Lord would strike my tongue and temporarily leave no taste buds behind. But it was the texture I couldn't really handle. So, as not to hurt their feelings, I went to the kitchen for more rice and conveniently stopped by the garbage can on the way by, coming back with less than I had when I left. I hope they didn't notice. Then as we were cleaning, I managed to blow up the stove in my face. I hope my eyelashes and eyebrow grow back the same color. They all got a good chuckle from that. I assume it looked pretty funny.

This week has been so busy. We work straight through from 8 am to 6 or 7 or 8 Pm with a half hour break for lunch. Without my usual siesta at noon, it's taken some getting used to. But the real busyness doesn't start until tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be working all day and all night- literally. We'll be cooking, cutting, washing (in the reverse order I just realized) and then finally on the 24th we'll be serving the food to the different churches that will be taking them to the streets. THEN, in the afternoon, we'll be taking the rest out onto the streets.