L3id Kbir

Alright guys:

It’s officially the end of an era. This week has been a week of first:

I went to the public bath for the first time. While it was a little odd to get the “massage” from the Hamam worker (read: being scrubbed vigorously by a complete stranger both of us wearing nothing but underwear), I did actually really enjoy the experience as a whole. I was a little nervous at first because I’m not totally accustomed to being undressed, nevermind undressed around total strangers. I think it’s an interesting cultural difference that clearly no one was worried about being naked in the Hamam but they cover up outside almost head to toe, but in America we are not all comfortable with nudity but we are totally ok with mini skirts and tight boob shirts. I felt a little uncomfortable at first, but by the end of it I was definitely enjoying myself. The fact that I couldn’t wear my glasses helped a lot. Because I couldn’t make out people’s faces, I couldn’t tell if anyone was looking at me or what they looked like. It also felt good to be hot and clean; I haven’t felt that clean in a long while. The most fun part was the moment where my host mom pulled out some mandarines and she, my 2 yo host sister and I ate mandarines in the public bath.

 As you all know this week was the very important holiday of Eid Al-Adha (as mentioned in my last post and wikipedia linked) . Long story short it celebrates the moment where Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son to God, and God intervened and gave him a sheep to sacrifice instead. Any Moroccan family that can afford it buys and slaughters a sheep, it's a huge holiday (akin to the american importance of christmas i've been told). Having a sheep is very important, some families here sell their appliances prior to the holiday in order to afford a sheep for their family. It's a big deal. Now this holiday involves mostly things I have never done before. I’ll give you all a little run down of my day…. I was planning on sleeping in a little bit, but I was awoken by my family and left my room just in time to follow our huge sheep (ram) up the stairs. He was not pleased. The guy who killed our sheep was just finishing up the first sheep of the day when we got up to the roof. I’m not going to lie the whole thing was pretty intense, and something I never though I would either see or be comfortable seeing. I’m not going to lie it was pretty fascinating. In Morocco they don’t waste any part of the animal so most of the morning was spent first gutting then cleaning the whole of this poor animals insides. Did I mentions Moroccan's don't waste any part of the animal? All of it is eaten. So.... 

Ok… I expect some surprise on this one. ….

I ate meat. Not just meat. Heart (which wasn’t bad). And a little liver (which was gross), Brain (which was too mushy), Sheep face (way gross), stomach (too fatty) and finally sheep leg I think (which was delicious I am guilty to admit)

Ok… I know… ok… but here’s the thing- earlier this week I was mowing down on some rice and chickpeas in some tasty sauce with some indescribable looking meat in the middle (pretty normal here) and My host mom goes “do you know what this is?” I nod my head no and she goes “You really want me to tell you” I did and she informed me it was cows feet. Now kids. As soon as I was sitting there supping on the sauce of the feet of my favorite animal I realized the jig was up. I will tell you I did not intentionally eat any of the cow’s feet- but 6 of 1 half dozen of the other what’s the difference between the sauce and the meat. I’ve been wrestling with that concept before and I decided it was time. (cue “dun dun dun” music). Later that night my host mom made some ground turkey and tomatoes and onions and garlic sauté and I had some of the turkey. I am guilty to admit that I thought it was delicious. Now friends- especially those who have harassed me about the deliciousness of meat- I know meat is delicious, I knew meat was delicious, but don’t expect me to go on some meat extravaganza and find me double fisting a leg of turkey, and a bacon burger and some hot dogs on the grill….When I signed up to do the Peace Corps I told them several times I would be willing to eat meat while I was abroad in order to integrate. I’m very lucky that my family has been incredibly accommodating to my vegetarianism and I’ll admit I use the term vegetarian here loosely for the way I’ve been eating (see cow feet sauce as an example). But there have always been a lot of reasons why I didn’t eat meat and things I had always told myself would make an exception.

This holiday is the most important in Morocco and it hinges on the consumption of meat- wouldn’t I be missing out on the holiday if I didn’t at least try?

I always said it’s important for me to know how the animal lived and died. Our sheep hung out in our bathroom for 2 days, I saw it’s food and I’m pretty sure a family member raised the sheep- Moroccans tend not to have the most gentle and caring relationship with animals but I don’t think this sheep was raised like the sheep in meat farms are raised in the states. I also said I want to know how it died. Well…. I saw it die. I documented it last moments I saw it take its last breath (side note, kind of creepy, it took a little longer to die then I had expected and it stared at me the whole time- I’m working hard on this whole situation to not let my overwhelming catholic guilty chime in.) So there’s that.

Also, as they say When in Rome… I don’t expect to carry over this meat eating stuff once I’m back stateside. Food is such a huge part of any culture and community and I also don’t plan on going meatatarian here in Morocco, but I think it is important to taste and experience important dishes.

 Also how many of you have watched Indiana Jones where there's the scene where they open up the monkey brain, and at first you're like... ewww... gross.. then I always wonder.... what does monkey brain taste like? There's a part of me that likes the idea of once in a lifetime opportunities and seeing as I won't feel obliged to eat meat once I get my own house I decided to seize the opportunity to try something new in a safe setting. 

Also something else I never expected to do was having a grill right in the living room- fire flaring up next to the lunch table. Huzzah.

Things that have been in my bathroom this week:

3 sheep

bucket of sheep heads and sheep feet.

Pictures of some sort will follow. I will warn you they are probably not for the faint hearted, because there will be photographed sheep death and sheep parts.