Bougna!

So I finally decided to update Collin's blog. We had been all excited because we thought his return date was April 21, but it turns out it's actually May 11. I'm happy because he will start his journey home on Mother's Day! Just knowing he's on his way home will make it a great Mother's Day :)

Here's a funny but gross story he emailed us a couple of weeks ago. If you have a weak stomach, just skip the first paragraph.

Last week this bump started to appear on my arm and I thought it was like a zit or something-- I tried to pop it and all it did was hurt. Long story short it turned into a Boil and that was fun. I had never had a boil before. It was super painful-- painful enough that I couldn't sleep. But then the other day I finally got it to pop and a big old column of off color brownish yellowish redish .. stuff .. came out. It wasn't watery either- it was a nice jello-y consistency.. And it kept on coming out. About enough to power a city. It was gross but awesome. So it kept bleeding for a long long time- the hole that all the stuff came out of was a pretty good size.. A nice portal to my blood system. So I put a big piece of toilet paper and a band-aid over it and the blood soaked through so I changed the badnndnangide and toilet paper so I had this bandaid thing on my arm. So I was talking to this less-active member at the store, (we had stopped by to pick up some dinner) and we were talking and then out of no where she reaches over and RIPS off my bandaid! AH weird! And she's like woah, what was that? were you painting? And I'm like, um.. And I lift up my arm to show a giant nasty WOUND and she was like AH! I'm sorry! And then runs away. Me and my companion laughed until we died. Then we never saw her again.

I also deep fried my hand.. Rather, we tried to make deep fried fries and oil splashed all over my hand and burned me. I had some pretty good huge long blisters on my hand.. They hurt at first but they don't hurt for the moment. One of them has popped. That's cool.

Now the gross stuff is over. You can read on from here :)

The only other thing that happened this week was that we went to an activity with the members, in which they cooked an entire pig-- head and all. They cooked it in what we call a Bougna... actually I have no idea how to spell that. Boon-ya. It's cooked by putting super hot rocks at the bottom, putting banana tree trunk on top of it, putting the pig meat along with a bunch of vegetables and fruits around it, covering it in lots of banana leaves and blankets to keep in the heat-- and it cooks the meat by the steam and smoke inside. I love pig--- not pork, pig. Pork is different. It's so good, I've only had it a few times but I love it.

Here is a video telling all about bougna. It's a little long, but if you REALLY want to know about New Caledonian culture, this is a good one to watch.

Hmmm... I don't know why the font size is so huge! I have tried everything I know to change it. Oh well...