Goat Roast

Yesterday when we were on the elephant hike on of the Cecilia, one of the SFS staff members kept hitting the brush near the path with her walking stick. She said she wanted to see a snake; they had seen a python two days before. I asked her what she would do if she scared a snake out and she said that she wanted to see how strong she was. Then she said she might not be strong; she might cry if a snake came out. She didn’t know. Haha.

Today we worked on our baboon behavior and eating habits papers that are due tomorrow night. I didn’t make much progress because I decided to take a nap and then I was fighting with the internet…

In the afternoon they brought a goat (boozi) into the camp to slaughter for a goat roast for dinner. I watch them slaughter and prepare the goat. It was very interesting for me because of the meat science class I took last semester where we learned all about slaughter methods in the US.

*** Don't read any more if you don't want to hear the details on how the goat was killed and butchered***

Yohanna told me that in traditional Maasai culture they kill goats by suffocating them so that they do not lose any of the blood. The goat takes a minute or two to die and once it is dead they cut through its heart to release the blood into the thoracic cavity. They then collect the blood from the thoracic cavity and drink it.

Here, the goat was killed by exsanguinations: a large knife was used to slit the throat (including the trachea and esophagus) so that the goat bled out. Once it had mostly bled out it was hung up in a tree by its hind legs. Yohanna then began to skin the goat using a large pocket knife. Nothing was done sterilely. The hide was removed along with the front legs at the carpal joint. The balls and the tail were left on the body. Next, some of the meat from the ribs was removed. Then the carcass was eviscerated. As all of the internal organs were removed Yohanna talked to us about what each part was and what function it had. The interesting part was that they didn’t worry about stomach contents or anything getting on the carcass. After the guts were removed Yohanna cut the diaphragm and removed the lungs and heart. He cut open the heart so that students who hadn’t seen a heart could look at it. Once all of the internal organs were removed, the shoulder/front legs were removed, followed by the ribs and back. Finally the hind legs were untied, skinned and added to the pile of meat.

Almost all of the parts of the goat were used: only the head, hide, heart, lungs, and some of the fat was not eaten. Yohanna said that he could sell the hide and profit from it but then he made a bunch of us traditional Maasai goat-hide bracelets. The bracelets are usually put on the wrist and then allowed to dry there so that the bracelet fits properly and doesn’t fall off (as the hide dries and shrinks it forms to the wrist). I put mine on a coke bottle that was about the size of my wrist because I didn’t want to have it stuck on my wrist.

Once the goat was divided into the desired cuts of meat a fire was made. The fire was really interesting. They have a type of wood here that is like charcoal. It can be made from any kind of tree but is best if made from acacia. The wood is burnt in a limited oxygen supply and it results in black wood that is very hard, has a shine to its surface, and almost sounds like glass when it is knocked together. This specially prepared wood does not burn with a large flame or very much smoke: it smolders. The black wood chunks turn grey/white and sometimes orange when they are hot. They get as hot as a normal fire so they are very good for roasting meat.

Yohanna cracked me up because he reached in a bush near the fire and started pulling out steaks to put the meat on. They were completely hidden in the bush and I would never have guessed that they were there. I asked him if it was a duka (store) bush and he laughed and said “Yes, duka bush.”

One of the students the balls of the goat because it is tradition that the youngest male eats the testicles. He said that they were not bad. They were just fatty tasting.

The first couple of strips of meat that I smelled bad but tasted pretty good. The meat was extremely tough though: I actually spent 15 minutes chewing on one piece before I gave up and spit it out. At dinner I had some meat that they had taken into the kitchen, seasoned a little, and cooked. It was infinitely better than the meat that we had from the fire pit. The pieces that I had at dinner were tender and, if not for the smell, could have been steak.

Overall, I was very glad that they killed and roasted a goat for us. It is traditionally only done at holidays and celebrations so it was an honor to have them do it for us. Also, I was proud of myself for trying it and surprised to find that I really enjoyed it for the most part.

Time to go to bed so I can get up early to help make breakfast.