First, a little background: the day patterns a famous story from their holy book - the central act being the ritual slaughtering of a sheep. But that's just the beginning! The rest of the day is consumed with the cleaning, cutting up, and cooking of ALL (and I mean everything except the gall bladder, hooves, and horns) parts of the sheep. There were many cultural challenges to the day:
Challenge No. 1
The family had SIX sheep to slaughter in the middle courtyard of their house. Surprisingly, I have killed a goat in the states before...and cleaned it, cut it up, and served it that day. But, I'm mostly a city boy; so the pools of blood with bits here and there started to dry my mouth out! By the second sheep, I was helping skin and clean.
Challenge No. 2
Raw liver. The saying on this holiday is that you cannot eat the main meals until you have eaten a small part of the liver...right out of the gutted sheep! It was still warm in my mouth - but shockingly nice to eat. I thought this would be the most difficult challenge of the day...read on.
Challenge No. 3
Sheep testicles. After butchering the sheep, we set about cutting up the meat into bits for stews, bar-b-que's, and special traditional dishes. I was helping my friend bar-b-que meat when one of the other guys passed over six sets of sheep testicles...also to be bar-b-qued. At least they were to be cooked, right?! I painfully watched as they were opened, cut up, and put on the grill. And then the time came: all the adult men gathered around and each got a (BIG) piece of testicle to enjoy - no women allowed. And of course, as the guest, I received more than enough testicle to savor. All I can say is that is does NOT taste like chicken, and I did not gag. Success!
Challenge No. 4
Every part of the sheep is used for some purpose. The heads and legs were taken to an iron grate, and--with a blow-touch--one of the guys worked on removing hair. After a while, I helped with this. So, imagine the process: a cut-off sheep head (with tubes, pipes, and blood hanging out the back), sitting on a table, someone carefully burning off layer by layer of hair, removing each with a knife, until the skin is smooth, blackened, and hairless--did I mention the wonderful smells? It was actually fun! I successfully finished one full head, and about 8 legs before we needed to leave.
There were other challenges awaiting us, like quartering the head, removing the brain, cooking sheep head soup, eating meat-filled stomach and intestines...but we honestly had to leave in order to make another dinner invitation that night.
It is these kind of experiences that make our life here so enjoyable, exciting, and fulfilling. We felt special to be included in a local family during this important festival, and the food we did eat during the day was brilliant and tasty. There was a continual stream of freshly grilled sheep meat all day, and we stopped for a late lunch when the "bizene" was ready. This is a traditional dish with a spicy meat sauce and barley flour mush.
Just another day in one of our favorite countries...
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