Dia del Pollo en Sangria

The national elections in Uganda are on Friday. The president, who took power after a civil war in 1986, has stood twice previously in elections and even changed the constitution so he could run for another term. Positions in every level of government, from MP to governors to village chairmen, are up for election so it's a pretty big event here. Except for some heated rhetoric and isolated violence, it has largely been peaceful.

During the two weeks surrounding the election Peace Corps has us on lockdown, i.e. house arrest. Luckily I got permission to stay with my friend Jill in Ibanda, about 50km south of my site. Jill has electricity, a water tap about 20 feet from the front door, her organization has internet I can use for free, and she's pretty much awesome to top it all off. Like many things that happen here, utter boredom was the cause for organizing and celebrating "Dia del Pollo en Sangria." Our friend Charlene also joined for the festivities:

With a packet of McCormick's Garlic Lime Chicken Fajita mix (thank you Mom!) we decided to make fajitas. What better way to celebrate a Mexican day in Africa? Unfortunately not all of the ingredients were included in the package, so we had to go shopping. (And the suggested prep time of 5 minutes was way off.)













We headed to the market in Ibanda town to get the veggies for the fajitas. Considering we live in a tropical climate, tropical sangria was definitely called for - mangoes, pineapple, oranges, and apples.

Some prices of common foods:
5 tomatoes - 20 cents
A bunch of onions - 45 cents
1 large pineapple - 45 cents
3 Bell peppers - 45 cents


The local liquor store carries just about everything that's available in Uganda. One 5-liter box of dry red wine (South Africa) put us back 65,000 Shillings - $30.

Also notice the sachets in the bottom left. It's a shot of booze for about 5-10 cents and is the preferred alcohol among the village drunks and motorcycle drivers.




Charlene and I are enjoying our tropical sangria....












Also not included in the package of chicken fajita mix was the chicken. I offered to run out to the Safeway to get a pack of Foster Farms but quickly remembered that we were in Uganda. Alas!

Luckily Jill's organization was raising chickens so there was a fresh supply of cage-free, free-range, organic and all natural chicken right outside. Now only to pick the best one.











It also meant we had to slaughter and clean it. After some intense debate and introspection, Jill stepped up to the plate. As of yet I still haven't killed anything, I've only been an accomplice for a turkey and now a chicken. (I'm just happy we didn't decide to go with beef fajitas...)







Yes, I wore gloves. Jill cleaned and gutted the chicken, I carved it up. I think there's something to say for caged chicken that are fed hormones and growth enhancers - our chicken was about a year old and had hardly any meat on it.








The chicken slaughtered and cleaned, the veggies cut and prepped, the sangria bucket slowly being drained, we fried it all up and enjoyed a delicious taste of home. As for the five-minutes of prep time suggested by the packaging, it took us the better part of a great day.

Happy Dia del Pollo!