Four roosters have gone to heaven

I believe that I had previously commented that my host family had 80 chickens.  The chickens belonged to my host family and my host father's two brothers' families.

Before the move

A couple of weeks ago after the construction was complete on the brother's chicken house, half the chickens moved next door.  So we were down to 40.  Well, we are now down to 36. My host sister has been wanting fresh chicken so last night after dinner four roosters bit the dust.  It was quite a production, witnessed and participated my members of my extended family. I think at one point we had around ten people in the yard.

First there was the selecting of chickens.  Since my family hopes to get eggs from the females, roosters were the target.  This was accomplished by entering the chicken coop with flashlight, spotting a rooster and then shutting off the flashlight and grabbing the rooster.  According to Nunu, chickens can't see in the dark.  I did not participate in the chicken selection, but was sipping tea in the kitchen with my host mother. The chickens were brought up to the yard to meet their maker.  I did dishes while the first two were dispatched, but did pluck up enough courage to witness the demise of the final two.  An uncle was in charge of this aspect of the process.  He stood on the wings, while the chickens faced Mecca and cut off their heads.

Once the roosters were dead and stopped moving the women swooped in.  One-by-one boiling water was poured over the chickens to loosen up the feathers.  The primary plucking was done at one table, with the finer plucking at another.  I gathered my courage and assisted in the fine plucking.  Somewhere there is a picture of me.  I was doing fine and only jumped once when a headless neck swung my way.  I believe that my primary goal in this process was to provide comic relief.

After assisting with the finer plucking of two of the roosters, I sat down and watched for a while but headed to bed prior to the gutting.  To honor the roosters that would be providing my next day's diinner, I ate  package of Trader Joe's Meyer lemon cookies.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

Patti's on a mission

So, I asked my sister to send me a care package of primarily food items that I missed.  Below is a listing of the items I requested:

• Trader Joe's
• meyer lemon cookies
• ginger cookies
• soft and juicy mango slices
• green tea mints
• chili peppers
• almond and cranberry KIND bars (thanks to Arielle who introduced them to me)
• Burt's Bees lip balm
• Starbuck's Cool Lime Refreshers
• Individual packs of almond butter
• scotch tape (the tape here is a little odd)
• yeast

She sent them in mid-July.  Based on the tracking information it arrived in Azerbaijan the next week and was identified as unclaimed as of the 29th of July.

In the meantime, I was checking every few days at my local post office.  My local post office is on the way to work and the woman who works there calls me when I have mail.  I would ask her about my package and she would let me know that it hadn't arrived yet.  All this is done in Azerbaijan.

Today was a slow day at work, so I decided to try to figure out where in Azerbaijan my package was.  First I decided to figure out if the postal code I had been given and had given out was correct.  Ended up it was not correct.  I have been getting letters so I thought perhaps packages have a different system. The postal code belonged to the closest city about 5km from my work.  Armed with this knowledge, I decided to leave work an hour early in an attempt to locate my package. I felt the need to tackle this task today since the next two days are holidays to mark the end of Ramadan and I wanted a treat going into my four day weekend.

So I headed out to catch a bus that would get me close to the post office in the city.  My first mistake, was not getting off the bus in time and/or indicating that I needed to get off at the beginning of the highway on-ramp.  I ended up heading toward Baku.  I got off at the next off-ramp and crossed over to catch the next bus back.  Unfortunately, I just missed a bus and ended up waiting about 30 minutes for the next one. At this point I had been on my quest for about an hour.  Caught the bus and got off for a six block walk to the post office.

Once I got to the post office, I was able to ask about my package, gave them the tracking number and it was determined that it was in the post office in my town.  Headed back six blocks and caught a bus to my post office.  Once there, no package. However, I was able to communicate what the clerk at the city post office told me.  Ends up there is another post office in my town. She called and of course my package was there.  By this time it was about 20 minutes before 5 and the post office closes at 5.  She explained where the post office was and wrote me directions.  At first I didn't understand. Once I took a deep breath I figured out where she wanted me to go.

Back to the bus. Got off at the stop indicated and asked two people for additional directions. The post office ended up around the back of buildings on the main street with no obvious signage.  Got there with five minutes to spare.  The clerk knew I was coming and welcomed me in English.  The computer wasn't cooperating so they got me a chair and ordered me to sit.  I saw pictures of her wedding and trip to the US.  Just before 5:30 I was send off with two packages and two letters.  They have my phone number, so I should know if other items arrive.

Back to the bus for a short ride to the stop for home.  Ends up I passed the post office my package was in three times in my quest today and who knows how many times since it arrived.  Two and a half hours after I started my journey I arrived home and got to see my memories of home. I shared some cookies with my host family.  The lemon cookies are a hit.

Next time the post office trip will take 45 minutes tops.  I learned a lot along the way and also discovered that my Azerbaijan is good enough to figure all this out.  Miracles do happen.

My treats are the best things ever to go into a long weekend with. 

Thanks go out to my wonderful sister for the package and to my friend Jo for the blood orange candy bar. 

Patti