Bettie Rose Addleton wrote a book about the more than 30 years she spent as a missionary in Pakistan. (GRANT BLANKENSHIP/THE TELEGRAPH)

By Liz Fabian

MACON, Georgia–For Bettie Rose Addleton, missionary life took some getting used to.

Not so much for the young bride of 25 who, along with her husband and toddler, boarded a freighter from New York to Pakistan, but for the woman who returned to Macon in 1994 after 34 years on the mission field.

“When we came back here to retire, it was an adjustment,” Addleton said at her home. “We hadn’t been here, and life goes on without us.”

During one visit home, the variety of dry cereal in the grocery store was astonishing.

“I was never so confused in my life,” she said.

Both Bettie Rose and her husband, Hu, felt God’s calling, and that common goal cemented a long-running relationship that began as children when they attended school together in Jones County.

They packed belongings into large steel drums and boarded the ship for the five-week journey. She had to take larger sizes of clothing for their young son to grow into, as there would be little to offer in the wilds of the fledgling country that had recently won independence. But they found a peaceful existence.

It wasn’t until her family returned home for a visit that her younger son was exposed to violence — on television.

“Jonathan sat in front of the TV and saw all this violence, and he came running,” she said.

It was her own viewing of recent violence in her adopted homeland that led her to publish her new book, “The Day the Chicken Cackled: Reflections on a Life in Pakistan.”

“Pakistan is for me much more than a newspaper headline or a comment on television,” Addleton wrote in the preface. “I know the flesh and blood that lies behind the headlines. I know what it is like to live in a country that seemingly exists at the edge of a precipice all the time.”

She wanted to show the world the human side of life in Pakistan.

In 13 chapters, she recounts many experiences in a new culture. Entertaining was a highlight of her time spent with Pakistani women who often gather for tea.

One encounter, though, she might want to forget. She had her cook prepare some beef patties for her new Hindu friends.

“That was a big mistake on my part, and they were offended and left,” she said. “Nevertheless, we became friends, and they overlooked that.”

Addleton learned to prepare native dishes laden with aromatic spices, and she still mixes her own curry. Mastering the chapati flat bread cooked over an open fire still eludes her.

Equally elusive was the title of the book. After considering countless options, she remembered a woman once telling her she should write about her life with the title “The Day the Chicken Cackled.”

Why?

“You’ll have to read the book,” she said with a smile. “Look in the food chapter.”

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This story was originally published Jan. 30, 2010, at www.macon.com and is used by permission. Writer Liz Fabian can be reached at lfabian@macon.com.