Vegetarians – Don't Read!

I came back to the compound two days ago to find a goat tied up to the laundry tower. It bleated at me pitifully, and I expected to see it on my plate for dinner the next day.  Only...I got back from work/class (I'm learning language in the morning and as of this week have started teaching in mock classrooms in the afternoons) and found the goat still alive. While it was great fun to have it chase the kids, I couldn't help but wonder if it would turn out like the Missing Chicken.  

The Missing Chicken is the most annoying animal on Earth. My host mom bought it with a friend, we ate the friend, but this rooster hung around for about a week afterwords. And it doesn't only crow at dawn. Though when it did...it was kept in the shower at night and so come morning it would crow and crow, the noise echoing down the hallway and waking me way earlier than I wanted to be woken. I was so looking forward to eating him, but then he went missing. I don't know if he was sold or escaped or was eaten by a hyena, but he never crossed my plate which is sad.

I was very worried I would wake up to bleats the next morning.

But yesterday, low and behold I came back after class to see a skinned goat hanging from the laundry tree and my host nephew cutting the fat off. There was less blood than I expected, even on the skin stretched out on the fence. And I couldn't help but watch as when trimming fat, the thorax cavity was exposed and intestines literally started falling out. The cavity was fully opened, and I watched him remove the stomach and organs, all of which took up more space in an animal than I realized. The carcass looked so big and meatfull before it was gutted, and then it seemed to shrink to half its size.  It was also kinda amusing to see my host nephew pull on an end of the intestine from where he cut it and watch it unravel and straighten in his hands, as if he were winding around his hand a pile of yarn from the table. But when it came to pushing waste out of the bowels, I had to leave.  That was not so cool to watch.

Also, I'm now a vampire, because I ate blood. (And it's better than brain).  Apparently the lack of blood I saw was because they drained the goat, collected the blood, and then once it started clotting cooked it. It wasn't bad, and while it looked odd I thought it might just be liver at first until I was told else wise. Still, as odd as that is to eat, I think I prefer it to the jaw my host mom munched on tonight, complete with teeth attached.  I'm okay with distancing myself from things, but it's hard to do when it's even slightly possible that I know what I'm eating.