¡Los pobres y una gallina (a chicken)!

When I was little, Gobble took my cousin Jana and me to a petting zoo somewhere in Texas. At the end of the day, there were cute little baby chicks being sold for $1. To this day I remember how sad I was that I could not take one home since I was a city dweller (if Rosebud, TX can be considered a "city"). On the other hand, Gobble bought Jana a baby chick to take back to her home in the country. Every time I see a baby chick, I think about that day. Well, my day has arrived!!!! That's right, Saturday I received a chicken, yes a live chicken that is currently living in our fancy kitchen, as a gift for the gringa!!! More details and pics later in the post...
Cotty and I left the apartment at 7 a.m. on Saturday, picked up Maria Ester and her sister, and made the 3 hour trek to a small and very poor pueblo right outside the city of Molina. We met up with about 15 other members of the church (adults, teenagers, and kids) to deliver clothes and food to people who have had their lives destroyed by the earthquake. We also did construction on a "house."
To say that this pueblo had a lot of chickens is an understatement. Imagine yourself driving and having to slam on the breaks for a squirrel (for the Wacoans) or a prairie dog (Arizonans). Now imagine having to do that for chickens! While driving through this poor town made of dirt roads, I can't even begin to describe how many gallinas there were. They were literally EVERYWHERE!
First of all, let me introduce myself. Hi, I'm the gringita formerly known as Katelyn. Everybody stopped using my name yesterday and started introducing me as "the gringita" (gringa). Whatev...let me tell you about the people I met. First stop was the what used to be house of 86 year-old Rosa and her husband. Poor before the earthquake, their house completely collapsed during the tremors. The tile floor remains, so you can see where the house used to stand. They made a makeshift shack in which to store their surviving belongings and are currently sleeping in a tent provided by a U.S. Rotary Club (This is why she love gringos). Keep in mind it is a cold winter here right now, and their home is a tent. The government built the people who lost their homes a 6 x 3 meter wooden "home," but it leaks when it rains, making it useless. Poor Rosa cried several times while we were there but was willing to show us around her shack. When we arrived, she was literally plucking feathers off of a chicken, and later we were offered the same chicken to eat. Picture below! By the end of the day, the crew had built a completely new leak-proof roof, added insulation and plywood to the walls and cleaned up the enormous amount of pieces of the house that scattered everywhere. I was instructed to help install the insulation. After I had almost finished, I was told to be very careful because it was toxic and very dangerous to the eyes and nose. Yep, I had been breathing in fiberglass, so let's hope the warning wasn't too late. After that, I stuck to cleaning up the yard.

Arrived this this...a lady plucking feathers off of a chicken


Cute little Rosa


The tent they were sleeping in from the Rotary Club


This is the tiny house the govt rebuilt for them. Our team added insulation and built a new roof. If you look on the ground, you can still see the tile from where their house used to be and is no more. You can see pieces of their roof and walls all over the ground.


What used to be a church


Our second stop was to a family consisting of a grandmother, two parents, a little girl and an 8-month-old baby. We dropped off clothes, food and candy for the little girl. The cool thing is that this is not the first time that this church has come to help these people, so when we arrived, they already knew their names. This shows the people that it isn't a one-time situation, but that this church will be here to help until they get their lives back in order.
Our final stop was a single man living in a shack but to me it seemed more like a petting zoo. He's a farmer, so running wild on his property were 8 dogs, a cat, geese, a sheep and of course chickens. Most of these animals also made their way into his make-shift wooden shack at some point while we were there. He lost his mother, his sister, and another family member in the earthquake after the house fell on top of them. His father has been in the hospital since it happened on February 27.
The man and SOME of his dogs


This dogs teeth cracked me up!

After these stops, back to Rosa's house we went to finish up. Here is where the new pet chicken comes in! I've come to realize after many encounters that the poorest who have nothing to offer are the ones that offer everything they do have. While we were there, she offered soup, tea and a warm seat by the stove. She wanted to give us everything that she could because she was so grateful that we were there to help. She went to her chicken coop, tricked them by dropping corn to the ground, yanked her fattest chicken, and handed it to Cotty. We were to take it home as a present for the gringa. She wrapped it in a bag and in the back of the Jeep it rode all the way home. It now lives in a bag in the laundry room! I keep asking Cotty what we are going to do with it and she keeps saying she doesn't know. But every time we hear the thing make a sound, we start laughing our heads off. Maybe I should delete this post, PETA is probably on its way!

Luring my chicken


My chicken...in a bag...in our kitchen.



Things learned:

I will have a burned tongue for the next two months. Hot drinks hate my tongue.

Even if you hate celery, you will still eat it in a foreign country. Everyday.

When nobody is looking, a red light turns into a four way stop. Well, more like a 4- way yield.

Chilean Rolly Polly's are not the enchanting insect that attracts every child including myself. In this country they are almost a purple, fluorescent, translucent color. Much more creepy looking.

Chileans work from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and take work home with them. Some even work Saturday mornings. Yep, just like America, an 11-hour work day.

Cats are welcomed in seminary lectures. Yep, went to a lecture by Alan Culpepper at the seminary here and a cat was roaming in and out of the chairs and even up on stage. Some people laughed (the Americans) but most just petted it. What??

Hymns bring people together! The Spanish versions of At the Cross and How Great Thou Art came on the radio. Cotty sang in Spanish and I sang in English. Cool.

As of yesterday, my beloved pet chicken is dead, cut into pieces, and hanging out in the freezer. I guess I'll be eating him soon, but the trauma will require at least 2 days of mourning. I asked Cotty how she killed it and she won't tell me.

Chilean Flag...Texan Flag...?


Have you ever seen a stray dog like this??