Sometimes new IS weird

Spent a lot of time with the fam this weekend. Some dancing, drinking, it was pop’s birthday, so we went to spend it with some aunts uncles cousins and the like in another part of town. Overall it was fun bonding time with my Nica host family. I’ll preface the rest of this recap by saying that I have faithfully maintained my vegetarianism (with a minor slip from my host mom of feeding my some campbell’s chicken noodle soup) while here in Nicaragua, have declined several invitations to the circus, and have expressed my distaste for cock fights, trying to stick to my guns and stand up for the animals. Apparently animal cruelty, scratch that, unique cultural traditions are unavoidable, and the neighborhood we were in was celebrating…well…I’m not sure what…but the tradition involved hanging live ducks upside-down, about 20 ft up in the air out of a tree and men on horses rode past attempted to grab the ducks head and pull it off. I believe the lucky winner then throws the head into the crowd and whoever it hits has good luck for the year. From a distance I cringed, almost cried, managed to not gag. It was pretty gruesome to say the least. Now, we’ve discussed culture shock with the PC and all the touchy feely whyyy do you think this new culture/tradition/act/etc. is weeeird…might it just be different...try not to judge…but this was a bit to much for me to handle.