It was 4 AM when I was suddenly awakened by a rooster signaling the coming dawn. Now there were three problems with this. The first was the fact dawn was still an hour away. Second, we were back in the bed and breakfast in the city. Third and definitely not least, the roaring rooster was in the room next to us! And I guess I need to confess a final note, it was partially our fault. Here is how this all came about.
The afternoon before we had attended the grand opening of the grain storage warehouse known as Joseph Project 2. At the end of the ceremony, two young women came to give us a parting gift. A live rooster. Unable to turn the gift away, and respectful of the culture, the rooster was carefully “packed away” in our second vehicle. By and large, the trip back to the city, some 55 miles, shared with four team members and a very large rooster was uneventful. He seemed to realize he was outflanked and because of this was respectfully quiet for the journey. Arriving at our bed and breakfast everyone in the team settled in early, exhausted from the full day of events. Soon sleep enveloped everyone. The bed and breakfast was in a relatively quiet neighborhood in the northwest part of the city.
Then, with a start, I was jolted awake. It was that 4 AM time and that rooster was trying to awaken the entire city of a million souls! On and on it went incessantly for the next hour. I finally got up and started doing some work. A short time later I heard Suzi near the kitchen door “suggest” to a staff member that she “kill the chicken”. The rooster was immediately dispatched outside. Not dispatched the way Suzi suggested, but dispatched as in “removed to the patio outside, “just beside the window to our bedroom!”
Now I could go on with the story, but I will let you form your own end. Needless to say, little more sleep took place that day, eventually, the deed was done, and the rooster was not around to force awaken the team for the second day.