Meat Missing. Call Owner.

Medical school in the Caribbean is quite different than, let's say, Harvard Square or Miami, or Los Angeles.  Now, I'm pretty sure the content is very similar, but clearly the environment we are in adds something special.   Besides being Dutch (which is not a bad thing), it is the West Indies.  This is clearly a different culture when it comes to animals for instance. They treat their dogs like hell, and I suppose are doing things with them that I'd rather not know about. One of the regular issues I have here is lack of  sleep at times due to barking dogs that are chained up in the back of yards near my place. It's pathetic, and frankly just wouldn't be tolerated in the U.S. Oh well, this isn't the U.S. (I hear that a lot). I'd like to go on a rampage one night and release them all.

So I just got back from lunch.  I ordered chicken at one of our local eateries and I'm just not sure that is what it was. The meat is always suspect on an island that has shipping as it's primary source (warms up sitting on the docks), but the added reality of roaming animals on the island, a large feral cat population, and the manner in which dogs are treated...anything that doesn't look exactly as advertised is suspicious. The chicken, if that what it was, was cut up at suspicious angles thus obliterating the natural landmarks that tell the brain via the eyes that you are in fact eating a bird of some kind.

In reality, I've eaten dog and cat before, but I'd prefer not to repeat the experience. It wasn't by choice. The cat came in the form of a "plate lunch" from a family owned Filipino restaurant in Hawaii. I wasn't sure at the time I was ingesting feline, but they were "cited" by the health authority sometime later for doing just that. I couldn't believe they weren't closed down. The dog I ate was totally a surprise. I got invited to a hapa (half) Hawaiian family backyard event and ate dog as one of the main courses...I thought it was pork as it was laid out. I was informed later of my mistaken belief. Too late...it was already somewhere in my colon by then. Actually, and I hate to admit, it was pretty good. Rice/vinegar fed...

But again, I'd rather not repeat the experience and hope to hell I didn't just eat somebody's yard chain ornament or one of the other roaming creatures. One of the risks of being here I guess, and people have survived this experience and gone on to successful medical careers. Oh well...Back to studying for my last midterm in about 3 hours. I hope I've digested by then.