Service and Sand: Feed Me (aka the cultural lunch)

This post is going to be about the cultural meal we had today. If you are a vegetarian or you don't want kids to know about this then DON'T READ IT!!!! I'm not going into gory details (ok maybe just a little bit) but I don't want anybody to be upset or freaked out by what I'm going to to say. Decide now if you want to read it....

Ok I'm guessing you're with me and that you want to know more. Today we had a cultural lunch where each of the different regions made food. Yesterday chickens and goats were brought and today we slaughtered them. First the goat was killed. I thought it was just going to be a quick slice across the throat to kill it, but this was not the case. One of the trainers stabbed it in the neck and left the knife in. Others held it's legs so that the goat couldn't move. As the goat slowly, yes it was slow, died its tail would twitch occasionally or it's legs would move. I'm told this happens because the muscles aren't getting any air.I had a hard time watching this. I thought that I could watch and be fine, but when it started twitching and the death wasn't instantaneous I had to look away. And unfortunately it looked similar to one of my pet goats back home. So once the goat was killed people began to skin and gut it.

Since I'm learning Otjiherero I consider myself to be part of the Herero tribe (ish). So I quickly found out that Herero's eat really weird foods. We were given cow intestines, the goats lungs, liver, heart and intestines. The first thing cooked was the tripe. It was thrown in a pot and then placed over a fire to cook. Then we moved on to cooking the rest. In order to make the goat intestines edible the poop had to be removed first. Someone took a knife and just kind of cut it out. This was also thrown into a pot to cook. The strangest part that we cooked of the goat was the actual head. Cooking goat head is considered a delicacy and the meal is called smiley. This is because when the goat head is cooked the lips pull back and it looks like it is smiling. People eat everything on the head, but the cheek meat is considered to be the best. The head was wrapped in tin foil and placed in the fire. The last thing that my tribe made was bread. It was made by hand. Most of the ingredients used are the same in the states, however they add cow fat to the bread. The dough was placed in a pot and left in the sun so that it could rise. Once this was done, the pot was placed on coals, and coals were placed on top of the pot as well. People also killed chickens. Now I have definitely heard the expression "running around like a chicken with its head cut off", but it is a completely different thing to actually witness that. The chicken would be flapping its wings and trying to run around...without a head.

Each of the regions made slightly different foods. The Zambezi region (speaking Silozi) made a lot of fish and pumpkin. The Wambo region (speaking Oshiwaynama and Oshidonga) made chicken. The KKG group ( the click language) made pigs feet and a lot of pork. The Africaans group made chicken, beef and fat cakes. Fat cakes are like donuts, but much more filling and less sugary. I forgot what the Rukwangali group made, I think it made chicken. Each of the regions had their own breads. My favorite bread was definitely the Herero bread because it was really soft and you could easily tear it apart with your hands. I tried some Smiley and it wasn't too bad. It definitely tasted like goat and it was a little slimy but it was good. The one Herero food I didn't eat was their sour milk. They enjoy drinking milk that has started to curdle, and they might even squeeze some lemon into it. That is something I don't think I'll ever try. One of the regions made the mopane worm. The mopane worm is a caterpillar like grub and most of southern africa eats it. I had my first one when I was in Botswana 2 years ago and that one was more than enough for me.