The Mighty Big Chook that Redeemed My Culture

I bought a Mighty Big Chook, well, I thought, before it arrived, but after I had paid, it had better be a mighty big chook. It cost me a total of SBD$90! What a rip off! (In truth it wasn't, because, as I have said, it was a Mighty Big Chook).

So the Mighty Big Chook came, freshly butchered and went straight into the freezer awaiting it's destiny - the oven. Today was the big day and I took the chook out in the morning and it's been sitting on my bench all day.

And then it happened. A friend gave me another chook - freshly butchered. And then his wife said something to him in language and he gave me another one - also freshly butchered, with the comment, "they've just been killed, so use them today or tomorrow."

Ah, but you don't know about refrigeration - I have a freezer in my house, I thought, as I took the two chooks inside. In this culture, the lack of refrigeration means that when you have fresh meat, you eat it - you eat it and you share it till it's gone because otherwise it spoils. But in my culture, because we do have refrigeration, if you have fresh meat, you freeze it and use it at your leisure, for yourself (usually). It stifles generosity.

As good as it is to preserve things for ourselves and our households, as much as it epitomises the wonder woman in Proverbs 31, this thing about the way we lives (I'm still talking about refrigeration here), which has greatly shaped our culture, so often stops us from being generous. Sadly, those of us who have full pantries and full fridges, usually don't have full arms to give to others.

Myself included - as I have already explained (the two birds went straight to the freezer). Here I am in Solomon where most people would eat chicken once every two months or so (and apart from fish, that's the extent of their carnivorous diet), and the poorest people I know now (by western standards of material poverty, that is) are giving me free chooks yet I, in my self-preservation type of western mindset, am happily chucking the chooks in the chiller for the future.

All this flew through my mind in the short time it took to walk from the driveway with the two chooks in hand, inside the house, towards the freezer to shove (literally - my freezer is full - mostly bread. Sorry, no ice cream) the chooks inside.

I had a twinge of guilt about my lack of generosity that is so convenient because of my fridge/freezer. But it wasn't enough of a twinge of guilt - or rather the deep prickings in my conscience - to overcome my equally deeply cultural attitudes towards providing for myself before I provide for others.

So with the new fresh chooks in the freezer and the Mighty Big Chook totally thawed, I set about to preparing the roast. First I got out the scales to weigh the chook - she was a whopping 4.1kilos! What? That's turkey sized! True to my friend's word, she was a Mighty Big Chook. I quickly got out the calculator and did some figures and it turns out if I shoved my bird in the oven within 10 minutes, dinner would be ready at around 7:22pm. Eek.

Another cultural problem. I'm a Westerner. A dutch westerner to be precise. I eat on time. And on time is 6pm. Sharp (I didn't used to be so bad but now we have a routine toddler in the house. Hence we eat on time, or suffer the consequences of a tired, hungry toddler.).

Dilemma. If I keep to my western culture, which is so deeply ingrained in me, and keep this chook, which I already have doubts and prickings in my conscience about, then we'll eat on Solomon time - when the food is ready. If I give up my western culture to take up Solomon (or I would argue Kingdom) culture and generously give the chook away and cook up one of the smaller new chooks, which are fresh so are already thawed, then we'll on Western time - 6pm sharp.

So now the Mighty Big Chook has been the cause of two major prickings to my conscience.

Suitably pricked and prodded by the Mighty Big Chook (or, rather, the Holy Spirit gently working through events in my life) I pick up the Mighty Big Chook, walk over to my neighbour's house and say,

"Grace, what are you having for dinner?"

Grace didn't really have any plans. "Ok, well, here's a chicken. I don't need it so you can have it."

"Oh, Lauretta, Mighty (there's that word again) big blesing nao yu givim mi! Olketa ring kam lo mi and ask, wat nao bae yu bringim for kaikai lo sios tumoro. Bat mi no save tu. No eniting mi garem lo haos. Bat nao, yu bringim sikin, mi save kuki dat wan and bae mi bringim sikin fo mifala lo sios. E. Tenkiu tumas fo dat wan."*

I explain, that someone blessed me by giving me another chicken when I already had one, and I can't use them both, so you can have the big one.

She was very thankful for the blessing - and so was I. But I was even more thankful for the humbling lesson in generosity.

It will take a lot more than a Mighty Big Chook to redeem the strength of the greedy materialistic self-preservation attitude of my culture that is in me, that runs through my veins and arteries, thicker than blood, like fat the clogs and causes strokes and heart attacks (the strokes and heart attacks of course, being the failure to be generous and bless others).

But it's not too much for the Holy Spirit, who has promised to complete the work He has begun in me. God loves a generous giver and I want to be one. There's nothing like being in a country that is materially poor to learn about what generosity is really all about. Two things, when poor people are greedy about stupid things like clothes and pegs, you realise how awful that kind of greed is in yourself. And when poor people are so overwhelmingly generous with things - their food, their last bit of flour their time, their knowledge - you realise how awful your own stingeyness is.






*you get bonus points if you try figure out the pijin before looking at the translation below.





"Oh Lauretta, mighty big blessing you have given me. They rang me an asked me what I was going to bring to church tomorrow for shared lunch* and I said, I don't know! I don't have any food in the house. But now you've given me a chicken and I can cook it up and bring it* as our food for church. Oh my word. Thank you so much for this"



*When you see shared lunch in Solomon culture, don't think, bring a cake on a plate, or a plate of delicate sandwiches. Think quantity. I was very proud of my container of 30 slices of curried egg sandwiches until I saw all the other women were bringing pots and containers after pots and containers of meat curries, and roasted chickens, and tonnes of rice and pots full of cassava. I was ashamed!

*told you so.