Melkam Fasica!

15 April 2012

Happy Easter from Ethiopia!

To celebrate my first Easter in Ethiopia I returned to my home stay family who I spent 3 months with during training. After 8 hours on stuffy buses it was finally my turn to yell “WARAJJ!” (stop).  I stepped off the congested minivan, into the dark, and let the rain softly wash the public transport aroma off me. As I began to walk two smiling figures made their way towards me. My sister Nani and my uncle quickly embraced me and gave me shelter under their umbrella. We walked to our warm, quiet house where I was greeted with flowers and countless hugs, smiles and kisses. It feels great to return home!

Guz-Guz celebrated her first birthday since I moved and she
now has grown 6 teeth and can walk!

After 40 days of fasting the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians were overjoyed for Easter to commence. Orthodox Christian’s fast for over 150 days each year. Fasting here means not eating animal products, i.e. being vegan. Fasting is an important part of their religion and a major point of cultural pride; so you might be just as surprised as I was to learn that Easter is a massive blood bath. Having said that, I will now warn you that the rest of this blog is quite explicit and gruesome, and yes, we are still talking about Easter.

This picture was cropped. You're welcome!

At midnight my family broke fast by waking everyone up and eating “duro wat” the favorite dish of Ethiopians. Mr. Cock-a-doddle-do was sacrificed the day before as duro wat takes nearly 10 hours to cook.  I slept through the midnight feast but was again awoken in the morning at 6am, not too eat, but to observe the carnage. Though my family was eager to share this cultural experience with me, I declined my front row seat to watch the first victim, Billy Goat, be laid to rest. Outside our compound a large ox met his maker. For families who cannot afford their own individual animal they buy a large ox with 6-10 other families who all share the cost and meat.

After the deed had been done I took my fingers out of my ears and meekly walked towards my family who worked busily around the resting goat. Men are only allowed to kill animals in Ethiopian culture. My home stay dad Seyome announced a prayer to thank the animal and God for the nourishment and with haste Billy was laid to rest. Everyone was given a task to do. Nani collected the blood which was later grilled with the intestines and served with injera (actually quite tasty). My brother and uncle cleaned the internal organs and Seyome skinned the animal. On many levels it was an education experience for me. Not only did I learn how everything fits together anatomically, but my family explained to me which parts are delicious and how they are prepared for a meal. Just when I thought I was over the initial shock I was knocked back into it when my dad pressed his lips against the goat’s $@&#hole to inflate the bowels for easy cleaning. WOW!

For breakfast we had bread, injera, grilled meat, meet-meeta (spice) and wine. I was too in the moment to take pictures of our meal, but just imagine an enormous plate, nearly 2 ft in diameter, filled with small chunks of meat, rosemary, onions and peppers resting on top of injera. There were 6 of us around the table enjoying our FRESH breakfast. Having wine this early was a first for me, but it did compliment the meal and it was a better option than tela (homemade beer). Soon enough the gorshas began. Gorsha is another highlight of Ethiopian culture where someone hand-feeds you to show their love and respect. As the guest I was busy accepting food from everyone’s greasy fingers and trying to return the favor without getting my fingers bitten off. Never before in my life would I have thought such a gesture could be so affectionate and become sentimental; but this morning as I was being gorshad by a tableful of warm friends I felt an honest appreciation for Easter.

Nani breaking up the blood chunks.

Jack enjoying some goat blood goulash for breakfast.

My home stay uncle, brother and father skinning our Easter feast.