The Jungle / Meat in my Site

I just finished reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I would say to sum up the book: you did not want to be eating sausage or packaged meat back in the day. Truly grotesque.

Not to worry, it's not anything like that in my site. However, I eat completely vegetarian in my site (and mostly vegan with the exception of eggs and little individual sized milk boxes). Trust me this is not by choice as I miss meat, cheese, and yogurt a lot. I do this because I don't have a refrigerator and have lived without one for the past two years. My host family doesn't have a refrigerator either so I would have felt weird having another expensive item that they don't have (for me, my lap top and camera are non-negotiable for my work and life here). Not only that, but the butchers in my town don't seem to have refrigerators either. In addition, the meat is left hanging out in the open all day. I bet it would be ok if I cooked the meat well enough but I'm not going to risk it. I do have meat occasionally when I eat with my host family on Sunday nights and have never had a problem, so it must be ok.

Chicken sold on the street on market day

One of the butchers in my town