My very first L'Eid Kbir! Yay Meat!

Last Wednesday was the Islamic holiday of L’Eid Kbir (Big Celebration). This is the holiday in which they remember Abraham’s sacrifice and they too slaughter sheep! It’s one long, fun, filled day of killing and eating sheep or goats. Reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving in that family travels to be together and most of the day is spent eating, talking, napping, and sometimes watching football (soccer!). Sound familiar?

Let me recap how I spent my first L’Eid. It started the day before when one of my friends in town came over to do henna on my hands. I was in the middle of making the best pasta/cheesy dish and told her I’d head over after I was done eating. After I get to her house, she meant business. She had the henna, her needle, and everything set. I love getting henna done by her, because she’s pretty creative and she had the English movie channel on… I got to watch an hour of Two Weeks Notice and felt right at home.

Afterwards I headed to my host family’s house to ask what time to show up the next morning. My host dad said oh 7:30 is a good time, but you have to eat dinner tonight! I ask my host mom… her answer 6:30. I was like Whoa whoa…. That’s early, Dad said 7:30! She compromised and decided on 7. The nice thing about Moroccans and setting times… usually you can get away with coming later, earlier… whenever you want. So 7 meant I was coming at 7:30. Ha

I had dinner that night with my host family and it proved to be a preview of the day to come. Dinner was tagine. Tagine usually has meat, potatoes, onion, and other various veggies sitting in a pool of oil and spices. This tagine was basically just meat. A purely meat tagine, with one little onion cooked on top of it. How my household divides the meat is… every veggie is eaten first (we eat everything using bread, no forks, no knives, NO) and then the meat is divided equally by someone at the table (usually my host mom or aunt). That night we divided the tagine by 8 people and I had enough meat that I couldn’t hold it all in one hand. Times that much by 8 and that’s how much meat was in that tagine. It was probably half a small goat (that’s an exaggeration for sure).

The next day I woke up at 6:30. I was dragging, but threw on my awesome tejlabit (check out flickr pics, it’s like a big one piece w/ a hood), put in the contacts (lots of pictures were to be taken, must look fancy for family events), and made myself a cup of instant coffee.

As I walked to my host family’s house, I was greeted with many hellos and Mbruk Laweshk. (which is just a way of saying happy celebration, it’d be like saying Happy Thanksgiving or Merry Christmas). I also got tons of funny looks, smiles, confused faces, because every time I throw on the traditional Moroccan dress I get even more attention. Look at the crazy foreign lady wearing the tejlabit! Silly foreigner. Indeed, I am that.

When I got to the host family’s at 7:20… of course no one was ready or even started thinking about breakfast yet. And to think my host mom thought 6:30 was a good time! Ha! I sat around for a while watching the morning news and decided to head over to the friends who did my henna. There I had another cup of coffee, amazing cake/bread, and more plain bread with oil. That was my first breakfast of the day… My second was cookies, tea, and more bread at my host family’s. They also had rice, but I have become very skilled in refusing food.

After breakfast, the family photo shoot started. I knew I’d be taking lots of pictures that day and would be taking tons of requests from my family and other friends. This is when the attempted matchmaking by my cousins began! I had one time! ONE TIME! Asked about where this older guy cousin of mine was and ever since his sister brings him up every time I see her. It was pretty cute and funny… at first. So this guy had come to town for the holiday and the sister was insisting that he and I take a picture together. I was like “uh… okay… but hey you get in” and I’d grab another cousin or someone. Well they managed to get a picture of just the two of us and I look frustrated and he looks a little annoyed himself. We may not speak the same language, but we were certainly on the same page. Stupid little sisters/cousins!

Finally we all started walking to where the town gathers to pray together for these holidays. We kinda, sorta, missed it. Oops. As we made it through town everyone was already walking back. I did observe the community prayer for L’Eid Sgir, so it wasn’t such a big deal.

Back at the house I started getting antsy waiting for the actual slaughter. I heard that people will wait until the King slaughters his goat/ram and it’s broadcasted on television. I went with a cousin down to where our family keeps its animals and my uncle had already started on his family’s huge goat! The first thing I noticed was how incredibly red and bright the goat’s blood was and the poor thing’s tongue was sticking out.

Here’s a basic how to slaughter a sheep/goat:

1. Don’t let them eat for at least 24 hours. Have to make sure the inner piping is as clean as you can... this reduces the chances of bacteria infecting the meat SIDENOTE** (there was still A LOT of digested food/ crap in the stomach/intestines)

2. Pose for pictures with the animal.

3. Pin animal to the ground, facing Mecca, and slit throat.

4. Keep animal pinned down while it bleeds and kicks around, pose for more pictures.

5. After animal has finally gone to the other side, make a small slit near the ankle of one hind leg.

6. Use bike pump to pump air into slit thus separating the skin from the meat.

7. After bike pump breaks, use your mouth! The animal is like a balloon!

8. When you are satisfied with the amount of air between skin and meat start removing the hide using a knife.

9. Break the hind leg and hang the animal up by its tendon. Oof.

10. Little by little remove the hide. Oh and head on or off at this point is optional… (uncle left the head on.. host family removed it right away)

11. After hide is completely off… pose for pictures! Insist the crazy American touches the animal in one picture.

12. Slit underside of animal… watch intestines and other inside bits fall out.

13. Throw water all over the animal and try to keep the insides clean as the intestine is removed first.

14. Remove all inside bits, wash stomachs out, and get ready to start making kebabs!

So I watched two animals meet their ends and I was surprised by how little the gore fazed me. Sure there was a lot of blood and watching them break the hind legs was a little rough, but all in all I enjoyed being a part of the process. I felt like part of the family and was happy that I could take pictures for the family. Also the nerdy biology part of me was really excited about seeing the different organs and how they’re all connected. Where’s the heart?! Lungs?! What is that?!!! I had fun.

When it came down to eating our ram and goat… the insides are eaten first. This means liver, lungs, heart, stomach, and all that fat. They cooked everything over coals and seasoned with salt and cumin. I already knew that I hate liver! Stomach! Yuck! And I’m not a huge fan of eating just a hunk of fat either. My host dad read my mind, because he made me kebabs of just meat. I was very grateful. I did try the heart, which was rather tasty. At one point I did eat something that took me almost 5 minutes of chewing before I had to swallow it whole. That was rough.

After the first round of meat with the host family, I walked around town to other families. I was lucky enough to only have to drink two cups of tea and eat one piece of liver. Again, I’ve gotten good at the food refusal dance.

When I headed back to my host family’s for dinner… I knocked on the door... No answer. Again... nothing. The neighbor lady across the street yells at me... Just go in! It’s your house too! And so yeah, she’s right... I head in. I walk down the stairs and go to the back room. I walk in and everyone in my family is sleeping. The room is completely full with sleeping people. It was 7:30pm… I was so confused. Why are they all sleeping right now? I shrug to myself and make a “Well, now what do I do face”. One of the little girls pops her head up and starts bursting with laughter. Every one of my family members starts popping up from under blankets, laughing hysterically. Yes! My Moroccan family played a prank on me. For a half hour, my host mom kept making impressions of my face and laughing to herself. It was a pretty great moment… you know you’re part of the family when they start playing jokes on you. Least I hope so… ha.

Later that night was round two of inside kebabs. My uncle and host dad had their respective stations and had a rhythm going. They used the all-purpose tables and had the meat just sitting there. The liver and lungs were slightly cooked and then wrapped in fat and cooked again. As kebabs were finished my host mom would go from person to person and they would grab a piece of meat of the skewer using bread. If a lot were done at once, everyone got their own. I think for lunch I had 3 full skewers and 2 for dinner.

The next day I spent both lunch and dinner with my host family. I tried brains… almost puked brains. Not a texture I would call appetizing.

All in all it was a really good experience that I won’t forget. I was afraid of getting sick, because of the less than sanitary meat handling practices. We were warned that a lot of volunteers have digestive issues after L’Eid, but L’hamdullah I did not get sick.

Now I’m looking forward to our own Turkey day. I will be heading to the gorgeous Bougamez valley and excited to eat the turkey that the volunteers bought. I wonder how close to a Butterball it is. Hope everyone at home as a wonderful holiday. Words cannot express how much I wish I were in Illinois for the holidays, but the nice thing about Peace Corps is that we’re a family too. So don’t worry about me… I’ll be with family.