It's laplap time

by: Shawnda

After being given a HUGE yam and a chicken as a thank you gift (Eric helped a guy install his solar panel system) - I decided I’d much rather eat that chicken than keep it around and have to feed it and deal with another animal around (our high-maintenance cat is more than enough animal trouble for one family!). :o) Now if our kids were sentimental at all about animals, we wouldn’t have considered this so soon after receiving a chicken...but they are NOT. The first thing Titus asked after the man left was, “When are we gonna get to eat that chicken?! How ‘bout tonight?!”

So...I asked Abu Mommy and Abu Daddy if they wanted to eat laplap with us. (Of course, that means I would have to cook it at their house b/c I do not have a place for cooking laplap at my house.) We set a date later in the week that suited us all and planned for it. So the morning of the big laplap making day, the four of us headed down to their house. Eric and the guys did some work on their house while Lexi, Abu Mommy and I got to work on the laplap. We cut, skinned and washed the yam, grated it, and put it aside. We cut up lots and lots of vegetables (some for laplap and some for the soup we’d eat for lunch). Then we got to work on the chicken. Someone killed it (I had run home for the camera I think so I didn’t see how they killed it), but when I got back, the deed was already done. We then poured boiling water over the feathers. let it cool down, and got to plucking. Now I’ve seen a chicken being prepared many times, but have never actually plucked one. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it till I got in there and tried it. I actually enjoyed it. Crazy, I know. I’m not saying I’d want to raise and kill my own chickens all the time, but once in a while “ain’t” too bad. Lexi even got in on the chicken action when she begged Abu Mommy to let her hold the chicken once it was plucked. She held it up proudly and said, “Look at me, mom!” I couldn’t help but think of those funny rubber chickens that comedians sometimes use. Ha! That Lexi is one funny little girl!  And she definitely feels comfortable in the village.

In short...we had a lovely day. The kids played with all their favorite buddies, we had a nice lunch and laplap dinner, and the best part of all was just being able to fellowship with some people we love dearly.