Navidad 2012: Guatemala (part 3)

Ok I need to warn you. This is Tia Sandra sharpening her knife to kill the turkey that we ate Christmas Eve. I decided to take pictures to capture the process, however gory that may be. As a meat eater I decided that it was necessary for me to watch an animal being killed for my consumption. For all you (2) meat eaters reading this who have not seen an animal killed for your consumption, I have captured it for you here. Don't worry, you can scroll down past the whole ordeal. There are more cute pictures of Ezra and his Guatemalan family to follow.

After you sharpen your knife you hang the chosen turkey upside down and tie it's legs together. It helps if you have at least two people to do this. Tia Sandra holds the bird while Isaac ties the legs. Angie steadies the turkey.

Then someone pipes up that the chosen turkey isn't the biggest turkey after all and another turkey is brought in to weigh in. Tia Sandra and Isaac deliberate.

Still unsure a third party is brought in to weigh the turkeys. Emmy, Isaac's girlfriend, suggests feeling the breast of the turkeys to compare as their weight feels very similar. In the end the breast of the original chosen turkey is larger and therefor gets to go to turkey heaven after all.

Alejandro, William's son, comforts the turkey in its final moments.

Ezra is upset about the turkey dying. Alejandro seems more neutral.

You might think I'm a bad mother for letting Ezra witness all of this, but seriously, if he eats meat he should know where it comes from.

YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO LOOK AT THE NEXT TWO PHOTOS IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH OR A VEGETARIAN OR A TURKEY.

To kill the turkey you slice through the neck. Blood spurts out and the turkey does not die immediately. It took two people to hold the turkey down for approximately 2 minutes after its neck had been cut off. It continued to make gurgle gobble noises as well, however that is possible.

The turkey is now dead. Thank you turkey for your life and meat.

I should have mentioned that before you kill the turkey you should put a huge pot of water over the fire so that it's nice and hot once the bird is dead. Putting the dead turkey in the hot water makes it a lot easier to remove the feathers. Here Angie and Tia Sandra pull out the feathers and voila! It looks like a turkey you'd buy at the supermarket just like that.

Btw after the turkey they also killed a duck and taking the feathers out of the duck took a substantially longer time because it has a bunch of little, tiny, downy feathers under the longer ones. So in a time crunch kill a turkey over a duck.

OK NOW YOU CAN LOOK AGAIN.

I took a picture of this picture of Cristian and William when they were young. This picture hangs on Great Grandma's wall and was taken at her house. Cristian is on the right and I can so so see little Ezra in his face.

The view from the roof of Tia Sandra's.

Here's Alejandro!

And here's Ezra pretending to be an old man. He was so convincing! I think he may just be a famous actor someday.

Trying on a completely different role here he plays the baby, cradled by his Uncle William.

One night we went with Karla to a nearby town to eat empanadas. I only took this one picture of the gorgeous church all lit up for Navidad.

Angie pushed him around all over the place. I need her around all the time to keep him entertained!

Outside of Odie, Edvincito & Frijolito's house they had some blaring music and pinatas for all the neighborhood kids. 

Frijolito was ecstatic!

Ezra and Frijolito.

Ezra, Frijolito & Michael, son of Duglas who is Cristian's cousin.

Here's the saddest picture I've ever seen. Not right. Just not right.

Ezra took flowers from other graves to put on his Papa's. We meant to buy some flowers but no one was selling them on Christmas day. There were some people selling coconuts so we got some for ourselves and an extra one for Cristian and drank coconuts in the shade in the cemetery. We went that day with Cristian's dog Oso and one of his best cousins Noe. It was a special crew.

Oso went everywhere with Cristian. Every morning the two went to work together, Oso riding on the front of the motorcycle as Cristian drove. They went far and wide together. Cristian took very good care of Oso, always buying him food along with his own.

The neighbors told me that after Cristian was killed that Oso waited outside his house for two days. They tried to give him food and a blanket, but he wouldn't eat or go near them. When they carried Cristian to the cemetery they stopped at his work to pause, and they say that Oso jumped on top of the coffin, clearly aware that his best friend was inside.

Oso now rides around with Noe on his motorcycle much to the enjoyment of all those who they pass. Oso doesn't look as good as before; he's thinner and shabby looking and when we were there was only walking on three paws.

He's still a sweet dog and I think he remembered me. It was good to see him again. I'm glad that Noe is taking care of him as well as he can.

More or less it says: "We will keep in our minds your best smile and you will live forever in our hearts"

At the bottom it says "Remembered by his parents, siblings, and son"

Ezra asked me to read it to him a few times. He was kind of amazed to be mentioned. He said, "That's me."

We left Chiquimula that day headed for the capital because we flew out the next day. We got a ride with Karla and made it in record time (normally it takes 4+ hours; she drove it in 2.5). I did get some last shots of this beautiful, mountainous country.

Then we flew away.