April A-Z: Choking the Chicken

I was on vacation, abroad, with friends and staying for a few nights with one of the friend's relatives in a rather large multi-family estate. The patriarch of the family was celebrating a birthday and a party was being planned for the afternoon and evening. A chicken dish was planned and one relative offered to go pick up some booze and groceries; chicken included. I offered to come along for the ride. Privately I wished to contribute to the cost since their excellent hospitality had been free.

We departed the grocers without chicken and no alarms went off in my naive little head. We then proceeded to the chicken farm. I shall reveal now that this took place in Trinidad.

The chicken farmer received our request, vanished, and returned with... a live chicken, his fist around its throat. ALIVE! I was not impressed.

"Shall I remove the head?" asked the farmer.

"No," said my host. "My new friend from Canada wants to do it!"

"Like hell I would."

I backed out of sight of the chopping block, heard the act and watched as the the bloody beheaded corpse was handed over in a clear plastic bag.

To be clear, this was a dose of reality I very much deserved but I wasn't feeling very appreciative at the time. As a consolation the host said he knew where to get fresh limes for the rum-and-tonics I planned on getting demolished on that night. He then stopped in front of a private residence, exited the car, looked both ways and then hopped over the fence. This was a neighbor he knew to have lime trees in the back yard.

I looked at him gravely when he deposited the spoils in my arms.

"It's okay," he said. "They're relatives of ours."

Sure they were.