Episiotomy Eggs

I mentioned in a previous post (More Random News) that there is a season in our area where the people go out into the jungle and find huge mounds made by some wild fowl that are only slightly bigger than a chicken. The birds lay enormous eggs in them, and the people take those eggs and have a huge feast. I just wanted to post some pictures in case you thought I was exaggerating.

Here is a wild fowl egg next to what is considered a large chicken egg from the store.

See what I mean? How this bird accomplishes laying an egg this size is mind blowing.

After everyone came back we all had a big mumu where we cook a whole bunch of food in the ground, and the eggs were the main dish. After knocking a little hole in the top of the egg they poured it over some greens wrapped them in leaves and put them in the ground to be cooked.

When it was all over some kids put all the egg shells on a string and brought them to our house. It was an interesting conversation.

"John Michael, look at this" said little Ifonu. 

"Wow, that is really nice. What is it for?" John Michael asked. 

"Just decoration" answered our little friend. 

"Oh, ok, well thanks for showing me."

"Wait, I want to give it to you." 

"Oh, no, you keep it. It is special. You should really have it." 
 
At this point John Michael is really not wanting a long rope of cracked eggs with bits of slimy remains still inside. We know that in about an hour the sun will have them smelling like Satan laid the eggs instead of a wild bird.

"Ok" says Ifonu as he leaves.

We think we have escaped becoming the owners of the large rope of smelly egg shells when there is another knock at the door.

This time it is Ifonu with an adult and the eggs. He brought the adult because he thought John Michael wasn't really understanding him.

"The village really wants you to have this" says Mas.

"Ok, but what is it for?" asks John Michael again.

"Just for decoration. But we want to give it to you."

"Ok, well thank you very much." answers John Michael as he takes the long sting of eggs. 

We look around and see that many smaller ropes of eggs are hanging from tree branches and outside of houses, so we are relieved to know that we don't actually have to take this thing inside our house. We just hung it on a nail outside our porch and let kids come smash the eggs with their hands like a really weird piñata for the next few days. When we noticed that other shell string decorations were taken down, we removed ours as well and threw it away. We didn't want to be "that house" that still has Christmas decorations up in March! That would be too embarrassing!

John Michael with the long rope of egg shells.