Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Exposed by a Chicken and Cool-looking Continents

Above my desk on the wall is a map of South America.  To quote the girl from “Up” - “it’s like America . . . only South.”  Spending sometimes multiple hours every day here at my desk I get to look at this map a good bit (it’s the closest thing I have to a window – other people may see trees, mountains and sun, but I see a whole freakin’ continent!).  A few things I noticed:

  • It has to be the continent with the coolest shape…by far.
  • Brazil = huge.  I think we forget that sometimes.  But there are large snakes there, so I’d rather it was a big place than a small place.
  • Just for fun, draw a picture of Chile.  Gotta be the weirdest-shaped country.
  • I lived 2 years in Venezuela as a missionary.  Fascinating times.  Got to see what “poor” really meant.  LOVED the people there – pretty convinced they were happier than your average Americans.

And now a quick story involving a chicken and a super awkward kitchen/bathroom moment in Venezuela:

One day we were in the “house” (air quotes intended) of a family in Maracaibo.  It was a bunch of cinderblocks with aluminum sheets for a roof.  Dirt floor.  Family of 7 sleeping in one room with a single mattress.  And Kitchen=familyroom=bathroom (they’re all one room).  Except the bathroom was a toilet surrounded by precariously-hung shower curtains.  Well, one piece of instruction I’d been given was NOT to drink the water.  I broke this rule pretty often, just because I was so darn thirsty all the time.  My stomach and I suffered the consequences.  And on this particular day it hit me in a not-so-subtle way.  I asked the family if I could use the “bathroom” a few feet from the chairs we were sitting on.  So I closed the curtains and put all shame aside.  As I sat there I saw this under my protective curtain:

A few moments later the offending chicken started pecking at the curtain – clearly he was trying to bond with me.  In one fell swoop the entire curtain contraption fell to the ground and I was a guy sitting on a toilet in the middle of somebody’s living room surrounded by an entire family who was trying, unsuccessfully, to suppress tear-inducing laughter.  The parents quickly tried to pick up the curtain and restore my pseudo-privacy, but the damage was quite done.

Not sure why that story popped out, but now when I look at this map every day, I get to think about that experience.  Well, now in our house you can rest assured that we have a strict No Chickens In the Bathroom rule.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not really up on my texting abbreviations... but I think the one I should use is LMAO!
Sarah G

Anonymous said...

Aren't you glad we moved that map so you could recall these great memories? What would the blank wall have done for you before it "was decorated" by the map? :)

The Texas Bakers said...

ROFLMAO!!! Who was more traumatized, you or the chicken?!?!?

Emmy said...

Lol!!!! Oh my gosh that would be horrible.

And yes no chickens in the bathroom is a good rule.

JJ said...

Oh my goodness! That's like every horrible, embarassing moment all wrapped into one. I'm not sure I would want to be reminded of that one every day but to each his own.

julianna said...

OH MY GOODNESS !!!!! I just laughed so hard that I really cried. What a picture that paints. What a memory that must be. For all involved parties. Thanks so much, Scott. You made my week.

Gonzalo A. Peña said...

If I hadn'y been in that home I would have believed that story was fake. But nope Mr. HTF evidently left a... deep impression in Venezuela ;)

agm said...

hahahah - that is so funny - I'm still laughing about this a day later!!

After reading this, I have also decided that my house is a little like Venezuela: you shouldn't drink the water here, & at least once every two weeks, I knock the shower curtain down & get totally tangled up in it. I am able to accomplish this all by myself and without the help of a chicken. Yes, I am that incredibly talented.

Great story, HTF!!

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