So apparently, there’s this game in San Pedro, Belize, in existence since the 1980s called The World Famous Chicken Drop, where people get to bet on where a chicken poops and all (tourists namely) came out to watch.
Given that I too am a tourist, I headed out to Wahoo’s Lounge on Thursday to see what the big deal was. Despite there being a 1000 USD drop in addition to the regular 100 USD drops, and despite it being the 5th anniversary of my 28th birthday, I decided not to purchase a ticket.
M’sa and I got there just after 5 pm and enjoyed a drink at the bar. As 6pm drew near, the place begun to get packed with tourists, middle aged Americans mostly, forming a line to buy tickets. It’s 50 cents US to enter for the $100 drop and 5 USD for the $1000 drop. I believe the winnings are in US dollars. I think they had 6 or 7 drops during the night supposed to be staggered at 20 minute intervals so you would tell them which drop you wanted to be entered in, how many numbers you wanted to play, and you would be randomly assigned numbers from 1 – 100.
There was a live band playing decent reggae music the whole night and lots of drinks available at the bar. At 7pm, the game begun. Volunteers called “fluffers” got to shake the chicken around, blow into its butt (I kid not) then throw it into the pen. Then the crowd hangs around to watch the chicken poop. Actually, they didn’t just watch, they yelled, screamed, and heckled at the chicken to shit on their number. Hilarious! If the chicken poops on a square with your number, then you win both the money and the privilege to clean the poop up before the next round. Seriously.
For whatever reason, the chickens were slow poopers. Who knew it would take forever for a chicken to shit? Maybe they had not been fed. Maybe they had not be shaken well enough or had enough air blown up their rear. Who knows? When a bribe of corn kernels thrown into the pen did not work they called out for back-up chicken after back-up chicken until such time that the Chicken Security (yeah) had brought out all of them – Fry, Stew, Bake, and Rooster himself! Of course at one point Rooster tried to get fresh with the hens around, but that’s not part of the game.
M’sa had enough after the first chicken drop but I hanged around, not so much for more chicken pooping but for the conversations I was having.
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A lover of mangoes. A woman - smart, without pretense, lefthanded, Afropolitan - navigating this thing called life. An unapologetic believer in social justice and karma. Choosing to radiate positive energy and be true to myself. Here, my musings.
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