How Many Cows

Hello Everyone!

Yeah for Internet access!

Here is a quick story from my time with Jennifer in Soroti and the villages nearby:

Jennifer and I were brought to meet with a woman in the village of Obule who had recently undergone surgery. We were brought there by Charles, the pastor of a church nearby. We stayed with the family quite a long time- listening to her speak of her recent surgery, chatting with the daughter and husband and trying our best to encourage the family. We were brought tea and roasted corn to eat while we were there. Jennifer joked that since we were presented with food by the family, she would not need to worry about preparing me (her guest) food in the evening. The family fussed for a bit, but we all laughed and moved on to another topic. Towards the end of our stay, I noticed the husband lean over and grab an ugly little chicken that was poking around where we were sitting outside eating. He tied up the legs and tossed it behind him and I knew, without a doubt, that ugly little chicken would be coming home with us. Sure enough, when we stood to leave, Jennifer was handed a basket of corn and I was handed the very much ALIVE ugly little chicken! The family said they were providing us with “dinner.” Apparently, I took hold of “dinner” the wrong way because the family laughed as a struggled with the terrified chicken and as I tried my best to remain calm (as if carrying live chickens was something I did every day). Jennifer and I loaded everything into the car. We stopped off and spent some more time at the Obule church and eventually made our way home. Jennifer lives in a guesthouse behind a house rented by a family with the same organization (International Teams). The family has some chickens and roosters so our hope was that we could slip our ugly little “dinner” in with their bunch so she would be safe from the fire. I wish there was a video of my struggle to grab “dinner” from the back of the vehicle while also trying to carry a couple water bottles and my backpack. I eventually had to drop all my other stuff and just grab the chicken all the while laughing at the ridiculous situation we were in. Once in the yard, I placed “dinner” on the ground and was about to go grab my bags when I heard a lot of squawking. There are two roosters on the property and they both went after our ugly little chicken and then all started fighting in a big puff of feathers! First of all, I don’t know anything about chickens and roosters and all that jazz and here I am trying to figure out how to separate three squawking fighting feathered enemies without getting my face pecked off. I just yelled and ran at them clapping and they scattered. Jennifer came out of the house and scooped up “dinner” and took her to a cage where she would be safe until we figured out a plan. We decided to see if Steve, the owner of the other chickens, will be ok with inheriting a new bird. Jennifer kept mentioning that village chickens are good egg layers (an attempt to keep our ugly chicken safe). Steve agreed to give “dinner” a chance with the other hens and went out to take a look at our ugly little chicken. The other chickens on the property have names and since “dinner” is not a good name for a chicken, Steve quickly came up with a new name.

Egor.