Mga Pabo!

Turkeys!

The title of this blog is a good lead as to what is to come. It means turkeys in English. So, if you are astute, you may have concluded that this blog is about Thanksgiving. What a fabulous Thanksgiving it was. Last years was tops, this year tops last year. This one held a bit more personal meaning. As opposed to last year, when November rolled around, I was barley starting to get settled at site. The excess of new inputs in my life hadn’t yet slowed down. It was still some crazy adventure. Fast-forward a year to now, and the adventure has slowed. Now it is life. I have my home here, my friends here, and yes, even my family here. I also have all those elsewhere in the world, which my somewhat recent trip home to America reminded me of in such grand fashion. I realize the great opportunities that have been available to me. Not just through my country of birth, but also from the friends I have been lucky enough to meet on my path through life, the family I grew up in, and most importantly the parents that raised me. That’s a lot to have in life, and a lot to be thankful about. While I sat on the beach roasting turkeys on an open charcoal pit for three hours I did lots of thinking and this year, more than those in the past, all this became glaringly evident to me.

I got some great pictures this year for thanksgiving. As the title of this blog alludes to most will involve a turkey, mind you some of them may be a little bit graphic. I fell into the roll of the “turkey” guy. Out of the four turkeys that we “lychoned,” (roasting on a charcoal pit on a bamboo pole) two came alive and two came dead. So, with assistance from my friends, we killed, plucked, and roasted our birds. The pictures below will give you a good idea of the process. Its nothing too special, I have vague memories during my childhood in South Dakota of my Dad doing the same thing. However the subsequent nightmares of a chicken running around without a head, squirting blood everywhere may not have been all that good for my mental health. Thus, subconsciously, I believe I am more appeased by the fact that the heads stay on here, at least till after the bird is dead. You see I enjoy the local delicacy dinugu-an (blood soup), and if the blood is wasted spurting everywhere you can’t very well save it to make dinugu-an. I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the rest of the day.

"Buhi nga Pabo (Alive Turkey)"

"Patay nga Pabo (Dead Turkey)"

"Getting ready to pluck the feathers….. "

Not to bad a place to do the prep work, and yes, I did use that hammock in the background later in the day!

"Ako, ang Ido, kag ang Pabo (Me, the dog, and the turkey)"

"What a place to cook the Thanksgiving birds!"

"They’re getting close to being done……"

Ward. Ward really isn’t this scary. He’s a great guy, and I’d like to take this moment to personally thank him for the two bottles of Jose Cuervo he brought to our Thanksgiving celebration.

"The beach, not a bad why to end the day."

So, as you can see, it was a great day. I hope all yours was just as good. Unless of course your one of those silly people in Europe that don’t celebrate this grand holiday. In which case I hope you had a good November. I miss you all and hope everyone’s holiday season spirits are on the rise! Salamat gid sa ninyo sa tanan. Palanga ko kamo tanan!