Doro

The word for chicken in Amharic I've learned is doro. Last night as we were going out for dinner, the housekeeper was coming back in with a bag of vegetables and a live chicken. She was grasping both in the same hand effortlessly. It took me a moment to notice, and she laughed when she saw the surprised look on my face. Today at breakfast the manager left us a note asking if we'd like to join them for dinner to have doro kaiwat. I glanced over at the kitchen sink and saw there was a fry pan sitting in it with a freshly plucked chicken laid to rest covered in water. It looked like any chicken you'd see in a grocery store except that the neck was still intact. No doubt Col. Sanders would have looked upon this scene with delight, and I confess that I have a penchant for good chicken bbq, but this time I couldn't help but to feel for a loss of words looking at that featherless doro. Would we join them for dinner tonight? Actually, I have a previous engagement, sorry.