Victory over the pigeon...aka I was rescued by a woman stronger than myself

So yesterday I had the problem of the pigeon body staring at me from my fridge.  I really thought I was going to have to man-up and gut the pigeon, not looking forward to it because I'm a bit weak in the stomach.  And then this morning inspiration struck...oh yes...Thursday mornings are when our amazing house cleaner Kalthoum is with us.  Kalthoum is a country girl and heart and she LOVES cooking...could it be I was rescued?  Kalthoum arrived and with her usual chipper demeanor asked, "So, what should we cook today?" "Well"...I hesitated..."Do you know what to do with this?" "OOOOOoooooh...pigeon!!!"  She was thrilled, you see Kalthoum really looks out for our daughter Ahlem and she likes to do things that she considers spoiling her.  "I can make the most delicious stuff for Ahlem with this..I can roast it, grill it, or fry it...or make a pasta sauce."  The list just kept getting longer of things you can do with a pigeon.  My rescue had arrived, I was not going to have to gut the pigeon.  

Until this morning I had somehow forgotten one of the keys to successful cross-cultural living which is this: when in doubt, ask for help.  People are more than willing to show you how to do things their way.  In my experience, living cross-culturally is an act of becoming like a child again; it takes humility and letting go to really do it well.  I remember during my initial time in Tunisia one of my friends said, "Learning a new language is like re-learning the whole universe!"  And it is, really.  And it's also relearning how the universe works; cultures exist because we need constructs and rules with which to order our world.  Stepping out of my own construct and coming to another I have to make a choice: will I become an enfant in this culture to learn again or will I exist here but keep operating with my old construct.  I feel like in my case I still move in and out of taking on the humility necessary to do things a new way or just barricading myself in with my own rights.  The beautiful part is seeing myself grow up into a new kind of person, a person who takes on some of both and is forever changed. Anyway, so for today I had to become like a child and let another adult cut up my meat for me.  I'm really glad I did because not only did I learn what to do with a pigeon (if you fry it like we did you need lemon, cumin, garlic and salt to make it tasty), I also got this reaction when little girlie got home from school.