Well, not really Christmas, but it kind of feels like Christmas. On Wednesday is the biggest holiday of the year. It's called "L'Eid Kbir" which literally means "big feast." It reminds me so much of Christmas because everybody's family is in town, people are happy, there are bands playing in the gardens, and there are lights like Christmas lights everywhere, plus it's a little chilly. The big difference is that we're going to slaughter a couple of rams!
Here's the story:
You may or may not be familiar with the old testament story of Abraham and Isaac. But basically, the Kor'an has the same story but with Abraham and Ishmael, his other son. Abraham was told by God to offer his 'only' son as a sacrifice to God, and he was so obedient that he said he would, and he got ready to do it and then God sent a ram instead, and Ishmael wasn't slaughtered. So Muslims have l'Eid Kbir to represent Abraham (or Ibrahim)'s obedience to God and then the mercy that was given. I think I have that right.
The rule is that every household must slaughter a ram on the day that commemorates this.
We have my host family's oldest daughter in town now, with her husband and two kids, ages 8 and 3. So it's two households together, therefore two rams must be slaughtered.
Fast Forward to this morning: I hear some commotion outside my bedroom and so I get up and open my door and they are setting up a "stable" right outside my room! This is not a big house. It's MAYBE 700 square feet. When you walk in the front door there is a little entrance area, maybe 10 ft. by 5 ft. And off of that there are two rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom and that's it. So then I look toward the door and there are two large rams, alive and well, being led into the house and backed it to a corner! Then their "stable" was made by using a table and a couch turned on it's side to block the animals into the corner. They were pretty well mannered through this whole process, and treated fairly well. (the meat is only considered "halal", like Kosher, if the animal is treated well before it's death.)
So my 700 square foot house now has 6 adults (another one will arrive tomorrow), two kids, and two big rams.
The rams will be chilling outside my room until Wednesday, which is the actual day of L'Eid Kbir, when we will lead them, one at a time, onto the roof, and my host sisters husband will slaughter them. For the meat to be halal they cannot be slaughtered in front of another animal, and you have to use a big knife and slice the jugular with one clean, hard stroke after saying "bismillah" which means something along the lines of "God bless this." One stroke is ideal, two is acceptable. So then, apparently, it kicks around a little and all the blood gushes and squirts all over the place, and within a few minutes it stops squirming and is quite dead. Everyone tells me that is humane and it doesn't feel anything; that after the first stroke it just kicks around because of nerves. I definitely do not believe that at all, but I am comforted by the fact that it dies quickly. So then all this animal's blood is washed down the drain pipe and onto the 'street' (alley) below. All the neighbors will be doing this at more or less the same time. I wonder if the rams will scream? The streets turn red with blood, so they say, and I imagine they're right. After the first one, they'll take the other one to the roof and slaughter it. The stomach and liver are eaten first. Over a period of weeks the entire thing will be eaten, including the brains, and the fur will be turned into a rug.
So am I going to like this? Probably not. In fact I'm a little terrified that it will be traumatizing. Not to mention the fact that I may get sick. I've never seen anything get killed before! I gutted my first fish today while cooking lunch (Sundays are such hard work!) and then I gutted about twenty more, and then I cleaned a raw chicken for the first time in my life and felt squeamish doing that! (yes, I cleaned a chicken today!) So what is this ram slaughter going to be like???
Speaking of barn animals, lets talk a little about HYGIENE
We were told that if we plan on writing a blog, we should write it in a very culturally sensitive manner; as if our host families are going to read them. So I intend to do that, but I just have to share the fact that it is NOT hygienic, in my opinion, to keep barn animals in the house. Especially with the lax hand washing policies here.
FOR EXAMPLE! The two rams were butting heads a bit and so Hasna, my host sister, got involved to separate them. She had been in the kitchen slicing some potatoes and beets when the commotion started. So after separating these barn animals and then sweeping up their excrement, she went back into the kitchen and CONTINUED SLICING THE VEGETABLES without so much as rinsing off her hands. AH! I was SO grossed out. I mean, think of what is covering those animals that now is being mixed with the food we're eating for lunch!? How gross is our new "stable" going to be in 48 hours?!
Now you may be thinking "why don't you say something?!" But it's really not as easy as that. There is a fine line between sharing cultural points, and being insulting. Especially since nobody is sick. So what I did was volunteer to help her and washed my hands well with soap right in front of her. I was scrubbing like I was about to go into surgery. Luckily, this particular batch of potatoes and beets were to be boiled, and as our Peace Corps Medical Officer says repeatedly "heat kills all pathogens!" so I was able to relax a little.
Later on, we continued cooking lunch which involved raw fish and chicken and we cross contaminated like crazy; though not anything I was doing. Hasna went from touching raw chicken, to slicing cucumbers that we were going to eat raw. I kept hinting that we needed to wash our hands, and she picked up on my suggestions, but really didn't use soap, and did not change utensils.
This must be how it is done all the time, and yet, I'm not sick and have no parasites... yet. (Though one of the six of us in my training group does have parasites.) Have we just been overly cautious our whole lives? I feel like I've just been lucky so far. But I didn't eat the cucumbers at lunch. I guess all I can do is set a good example and volunteer to help in the kitchen as much as possible-- even if all I want to do is leave the kitchen because there are so many health violations in every direction I look.
Anyway, we'll see how the Eid Kbir goes and I'll give you my reaction to the slaughter when it's gone and done with.
I'm having a bunch of those "this is Peace Corps!" moments this weekend, and I guess that's why I'm here! So I'm happy with that. :) Welcome to Morocco.
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