March 15th, 2007- Are we all in agreement that this is edible?

I have been known to be slightly paranoid about meat going bad (after leaving it out of the fridge for a mere 5 minutes), but today´s little fiasco pushed my paranoia to the limit. My host mom awoke to find one of our 8 cows dead in the river. It happened to be our biggest bull which means my host parents lost a considerable amount of money with its death. We were unsure of both the cause and the time of its death, and this uncertainty led me to believe that it had died of madcow disease a looooooong 24 hours before. Hoping that my host parents would jump to the same conclusion, I was positive they would refrain from slicing up its carcass and serving it to me for the next 24 meals (you should have seen the size of its ribs!). My hopes dissipated when my host dad made 10 trips back from the river with various bull body parts slung over his shoulder, leaving them on our kitchen table (where I often cut my vegetables sans cutting board) to bleed onto the floor and eventually be cooked. No refrigeration, no cover, no guarantee that this meat wasnt spoiled from becoming swollen with contaminated water and acid rain. When I was served my first portion of bull at lunch time, I did everything in my mental power to convince myself that cooking at high temperatures destroys everything evil, but this didnt make the meat easier to swallow, especially since his uncooked and hairy legs were resting next to my plate as a reminder of where this meat had come from. Vegetarianism seems like an absolutely awesome idea at this point!

Now, onto my work here, which is just about as grim as eating rotten bull. School just started again after a 3 month summer vacation, which means work is more plentiful for me. Now that I have a steady and purposeful job, I figured everything would be just peachy. I presented my first schoolwide project a couple of days ago, which I have been planning for the last two months. It was going to involve many interactive activities, as well as some pretty spectacular prizes for the most participatory students. As I was presenting the plan, a kid raised his hand and flagrantly announced, ¨I think I speak for all of us when I say we have no interest whatsoever in this.¨ Sweet. So where, exactly, do I go from there? What a tiring job it is, working with kids who dont value education and who dont appreciate me trying to make their lives a little more fun and informative. I guess I just have to take a deep breath and attempt another strategy.