chicken-man

Seven years ago, Karen and I along with our two married children traveled with a group of 44 from our church on a ten-day Holy Land tour. Unfortunately, the spouses of our children could not join us, but what an opportunity for the four of us to make such a memorable trip together. Of the 44 in our group, 14 were children of others on the trip and they ranged in age from 14 – 30.  That brought an energy and a fresh generational perspective that added greatly to our trip.

During a lunch stop in northern Israel, I finished the meal quickly and went outside for some pictures.  As I was snapping pictures, I heard a voice that said, “Take a picture of me”. It was the large man in the picture above.  Without moving my eye from the camera, I swung the camera lens toward the voice I had heard and snapped the shutter.

We struck up a conversation.  The little man never spoke and the larger man had a strong accent.  He wanted to know where we were from.  I explained that we were on a tour with friends from our church and he probed.  He asked about what kind of jobs we had. You might think this a strange question, but in essence he was asking how we could afford to make such a trip. That gave me a dose of reality and for an instance I found myself stumbling to explain that.  He said that he raised chickens. I asked how many chickens he had (layers) to which I got a stern answer with a finger waved in front of my face for emphasis.   “I not tell my wife. I not tell you”, he said.

I asked what kind of chickens he had and he said that he had Hyline. I told him that I was familiar with Hyline and he found that curious.  He wanted to know how I would know that and I explained that I used to work for Purina as a Sales Manager in an area that raised a lot of layers. He found that interesting.

He said, “I have been to San Francisco and New York”.  I mockingly laughed and said that he had not really experienced the US and he should come to the middle of the country where real people live. He smiled and said, “To the Midwest?  Where the people are happy.”

“The Midwest – where the people are happy”.  Isn’t that an interesting perspective of an Israeli chicken farmer standing just a few miles from the boarder with Lebanon?

He told me that I was a good salesman and if he talked to me five more minutes, I might sell him something, so he excused himself and he and his little friend  headed toward his Mercedes.  As he opened the door to enter the Mercedes, he shouted across the parking lot, “I have enough chickens that I can take vacation”. Interpretation: I have a large enough operation that I must hire the labor done.  I am not responsible for caring for the chickens myself, so I can get away. I was not surprised.  🙂