Chicken Ahoy!

Looking for Dr. Emmanuel Ariga, the deputy director of TICH, I enter his office and find sitting in his chair not Ariga but a red hen. Ugutu Owi is standing opposite Ariga's desk, writing a note. Ugutu's back is to the chicken so he doesn't know it's there until I tell him. We tease about the chicken being Dr. Ariga and speak to the hen, saying, “Dr. Ariga, your feathers appear ruffled, is there anything we can do?” I tell Ugutu, “Dr. Ariga will probably come in and find a stack of eggs in his chair.”

I then visit Sister Masheti, seeking copies of speeches given by ministers, assistant ministers and ambassadors during the conference and graduation. I return to Dr. Ariga's office once again, hoping he's now in. He's not there, nor is the chicken's head bobbing just above the desktop. I walk around the desk to look under it, looking for the chicken, when I spy in the chair a gorgeous, light brown egg! If I hadn't known the chicken was there just a few minutes before, I would think someone left the egg as a joke. Very clean, this egg-laying business.

I'm posting a photo of one of the director's rogue chickens who found a nice nesting spot in the rattan chair on TICH's front porch. The chicken did not mind one bit that all the other chairs were occupied by mzungus from around the world. There's the backside of Michael Gorelik of the Weitz Center for Development in Israel, leaning on the column while he chats over the chicken. As I take the photo, my favorite white rooster comes along to check out the action, so I snap him, too. Isn't he handsome?!

During the conference, we hire a videographer to film all speaker presentations throughout three days of sessions. As we're listening to presenters, cocks are crowing and chickens are bok-bok-bokking in the background. The director's chickens are yelling out on the southside of the building while our neighbor's chickens are telling the news on the northside, often simultaneously. I'm convinced their sounds will show up nice and clear on the videotape and I wonder what someone in Paris, watching the video on CD, will think of the bok-boks and cock-a-doodle-doos. At TICH, chickens and humankind co-exist in loving peacefulness... most of the time.