Cooking Guyanese Style

The Rose Hall Relief Society president, Geeta, asked for volunteers to help cook the meal for the "Easter Monday" Branch activity. I happened to be visiting their Relief Society that day so I volunteered to help. We agreed to meet Geeta at 6 am to go cook at the Rose Hall branch president’s house. Rose Hall was a 30 minute ride away. Of course, dad had to come and cook, too.

The cooks

Six of us ladies (and a few men) comprised the cooking crew and we cooked the whole meal outside in two very large outdoor "cooking pots". The whole process took us about 4 hours.
Long boards were used as the firewood and they were pulled in and out of the fire as needed to regulate the temperature of the fire under the pots while cooking the food. A pretty ingenious method, I thought. It seemed a much better way to keep the food from burning than we ever used at the Girls’ Camp I attended.

Pot heating

Pot of raw chicken

Stirring the chicken

After the pot was heated, 25 pounds of raw chicken was added! It was stirred occasionally and eventually covered with a lid.

We cooked three dishes: chicken, fried rice and a dessert made of a mixture of flour, margarine, cherries, raisins, peanuts and Koolaid. Dad wasn’t too excited about eating a dessert of straight margarine and flour when he was offered a sample. I hoped Geeta didn’t notice that I finished both of our samples so she wouldn’t think we didn’t like the special dessert they had prepared.

Spreading the rice on table

Scooping it back up

Before we could prepare the fried rice, we had to wash it, spread it out on a sheet on a table to dry and then it was gathered up again. You’ll see that dad and I both got in on this part of the rice preparation.

Ingredients for the rice

Burt with finished rice

Women scooping the rice out quickly before it burns

The ingredients for the rice included green bora (looks like long skinny string beans)and carrot, both chopped fine, corn, a brown paste of spices, and a couple of bottles of flavoring.

Preparing dessert

Me stirring the dessert with the ladies

Men stirring the dessert vigorously

Women standing with 2 bowls of finished dessert

One time I was trying to do my part by stirring the mixture with a huge wooden stick. One of the women, grabbed the stick from me, and began to stir vigorously. Apparently, I wasn’t stirring fast enough. Some help I was… I had yet to learn the art of Guyanese cooking!

Geeta sitting on the ground washing all the dishes

When we were finished cooking, all the dishes and pots we used were washed by Geeta as she sat on the ground with her usual big smile. She washed them with a little bar of soap and a sponge. I was fascinated watching her as she used her hand to swish and rinse each dish and pot we used with the cold water that was stored in a small cistern next to where she sat on the ground. The cistern has a cover that was pulled back and you can see it in the photo.

It was a very fun morning and we made some good friends. After the meal was cooked, we ate simple bread sandwiches made with a spread made of margarine, grated cheese and hot sauce. By this time I had kicked off my sandals and was walking around barefoot. It is the custom to take off your shoes and leave them outside the door before entering someone’s house. In this case, it was just easier to leave them off.

One of these feet is not like the others...

They seemed to be amused that I would walk around barefoot. Maybe it was my white feet that were catching their attention. Later, they giggled and giggled when I set my white foot next to their brown ones and took this photo.

When I asked each woman how long they had been members of the church, they each said anywhere from 1-3 months, except the R S President, Geeta, who had been a member for 3 years. Most of them attend the weekly fireside on Joseph Smith that dad and I teach in their branch. They are starting to be our good friends.

Party Photo

Party Photo

Party Photo

Party Photo

Here are a few photos of the party that was held later that day at the only nice church building in the area in Canje. I couldn’t get everyone in the photo because there were so many. Aren’t the children just scrumptious?

Every week their branch is growing. Over 90 people attended last week. The 4 elders in their branch baptize new members every week.

Real Chickens.

When I saw the yummy chicken the Rose Hall sisters were using to prepare the meal for the Rose Hall branch activity, I was excited. I asked Geeta, "Where did you buy that chicken? Will you take me to where they sell it?"

We haven’t been able to buy anything that resembles meat or chicken since we’ve been in Guyana…which is one month. The chicken pieces they sell in the supermarkets are all the size of little chicken wings. They are nothing to get very excited about…and I was very excited about the prospect of eating real chicken like I saw cooking in the huge outdoor pot!

Geeta and I agreed to meet after the fireside the following Tuesday and she would take me to the chicken place to buy chickens. She warned me that the chickens would still be alive and that I would select which ones I wanted to buy. Then, they would and pluck them while I watched. Sounds gruesome, but I was more than willing if I could have real chicken to eat.

I got my camera ready as we walked in the chicken place. The man asked me how many chickens I wanted to buy and before I could answer, he said he only had 4 left. I said I’d take all four. He walked in his walk-in refrigerator and brought out 4 plucked and cleaned chickens. Apparently, we had arrived too late in the day to watch the killing and plucking.

Me with the daughter of the man that sold us the chickens

I was a little disappointed they weren’t still alive and I couldn’t watch the whole "show". I had to content myself with taking a photo of me standing next to the chickens that hadn’t yet met their fate!

Ladies who came to watch the "show"

Three of my new friends from Rose Hall came with us. I guess they just wanted to watch my show…me with the chickens!

Raw chicken before I cut it up

When I got home with those chickens, I finished cleaning and cutting them up before I put them in my fridge. I was a little surprised to see what I pulled out of the bags…the entire claws and the heads. I was reminded of one time when I was a little girl. My older sisters had painted bright red the toenails on the claws of some chickens my mother had bought.

Elders getting ready to eat my precious chickens

I knew I would enjoy our chickens more if we could share them and so, I called the 4 elders that live in walking distance of our place and asked them when I could make a chicken dinner for them. Today, we had that meal. Those elders ate and ate… oven-baked chicken, mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes, corn, sliced pineapple, bananas and watermelon and deviled eggs.
Their eyes bulged at the sight of strawberry ice cream and brownies at the end of the meal. Amid their cries of "Oh, I’m so full," they ate nearly the whole pan and had second helpings of the ice cream, too! One of them said, "That was the best meal I’ve had since I’ve come to Guyana!" I thought to myself, "He’d better say that because I know the elders here live on cold cereal, eggs, toast and Top Ramen. "

Later, I got my wish...

I was wishing after I bought those first chickens that I could have watched them get killed and plucked. Well, today my wish came true. We bought 3 more chickens and watched as they carefully weighed each live chicken, and then put them in funnel-like fixtures attached to the wall with their heads hanging out the holes in the bottoms of the funnels.

Each throat was cut and the nearly beheaded chickens continued to kick and wiggle. They were then plopped into a big vat of water. When they were pulled out, they were no longer kicking. It was obvious to me that they were finally dead! To remove their feathers, they were dropped into a circular machine. I couldn’t see what was going on inside the machine but when the chickens were pulled out, they looked like little turkeys like you buy at Thanksgiving, all clean and ready to cook.

Before putting each chicken into a plastic bag, one of the chicken guys chopped off their claws and finished removing the dangling heads. I knew he was going to add the heads and claws to my sack and so I spoke up and said, "Oh no, I don’t want any heads and claws." My Guyanese friend I had brought along quickly spoke up and said, "Oh, I want them. Give them to me!"

Later, as I washed and cut them up at home, I could feel that they were still warm and their unpleasant smell made me wonder if I really want to eat chicken. I’ll be thankful when I can buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts once again from Costco!

I took no photos because my camera battery was as dead as the chickens. Maybe that is just as well!

I thought to myself, "Maybe it is better if we don’t always get everything we wish for!"