MEAT!!!

Remember back about 6 months ago when I was a vegetarian? Me neither.

December 30 this year was the Muslim holiday of Tabaski. That morning I went with everyone from the town to observe the killing of the first goat, done communaly, and the accompanying prayer. Due to somewhat of a miscommunication, I think much of my village now thinks I’m Muslim.

This is me with some of the men in Aichatou’s family (see below for more on them). It's tradition to slaughter a goat and share the meat with your friends and neighbors for the holiday. They gave me a super generous portion of this goats leg, which I spent the evening cooking with a bunch of my 12-14 year-old neighbors. It was actually, all told. a really awesome day.

Is my expression one of shocked self-reflecting horror at holding up the carcass of what, just hours earlier had been a living goat? Am I laughing because my recent (if quickly receding) past is one of a strictly observant vegetarian? Or am I laughing because I have glimpsed the future and can imagine my friends back home laughing at me when they see the picture? I think its a little bit of each. The knife and meat prop idea, was, needless to say, not mine. It was the family’s. All joking aside. They are wonderful.