Not Your Typical BBQ

Wednesday the 29^th, we had our non-program day or “one day weekend” in which we had the option to either stay on the campsite and rest, or go out & explore.  No matter the amount of work I have, I always find myself going into town because I honestly feel that’s where I learn the most…that or I love the excessive amounts of bracelets they have there!  We went back into Mto wambu and I thought dealing with the overly persistent vendors was the extent of my culture-dose for the day.  I met a man of the Maasai tribe and got an awesome ankle bracelet and the traditional Maasai women ring .  Not surprisingly, I had to buy an imitation Baobab tree to hang them on .  I even found a Tanzania jersey! (don’t worry Ian & Ev, I got you one, too).  Feeling great about my purchases (only $12.00 total!) I, along with a few other students, made our way back to the campsite…only to be informed that a goat roast was to be taken place at our home that night.  My initial thoughts: “Absolutely not.  There’s no way I can watch this.”  However, before I left the US for this trip, I made a promise to myself that I would immerse myself into this culture as much as I could and unfortunately, slaughtering cattle is a reality in the lives of many, if not all people here.  I debated posting these pictures but it’s an actuality in their lives here.  Honestly on my nightly runs, it’s not uncommon to see this happening in people’s yards…and I promised I’d give you all the best insight I could, so here we go….these were the goats this was 10 seconds in …the next few minutes I was hiding/plugging my ears with my back turned…I’m sorry, I tried.  Next they took the goat to a tree, hung it, and inevitably it was skinned.  Adam, another student (he’s a hunter back at home) joined in on this process .  Our Wildlife Ecology teacher then asked if we could put, essentially the digestive tract in a bowl so that we could all have a quick anatomy lesson, typical.  But we’re all nerds here so we didn’t hate it. A few hours later, the ribs, legs, neck, even reticulum (which apparently is a delicacy) were roasting out in our fire pit .   The staff was having a total “bro-fest” (yes, I taught them the meaning of this term).  The director of the SFS Kenya program even attended…he calls himself the carnivore and seems to be pretty proud of it.  Anyway, as you can imagine, this event was pretty controversial.  I am a vegetarian along with 6 others in our program.  Additionally, we have two vegans.  It was tough for those of us who did watch but it’s part of the culture here.  They have a complete different view on animals–the Maasai have actually been known to drink the blood of any cattle killed within their tribe. All in all, many struggle day by day just to get by…so unfortunately they don’t have too many other options. I can’t say I agree with this whole ritual/process but hey, at least I can say I’ve now been immersed.

☮Hannah

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Not Your Typical BBQ”

1. Ian (favorite brother) says:

   October 2, 2010 at 4:09 pm

   Hannah! you ate goat congrats! i knew you had it in you haha thanks for the jersey! perfect timing becasue my birthday is almost in a week

2. hmcane12 says:

   October 2, 2010 at 4:48 pm

   Yeah I didn’t have it in me. I watched the guys eat the goat but I did not partake in that, sinus. Let’s skype tomorrow email me hcanepa10@gmail.com