A village, an anthropologist, two goats and a meal...

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When John has this idea about the feast, everybody agrees with him: There must be enough meat for everybody. We quickly arrange the organisation: Two groups of men will go out for hunting the night before Saturday. The KTAPC team will buy some additional food. So we ask around to get some ideas of what people like and would like to eat on that special occasion. Well rice is one of the dishes that is highly appreciated. The small village store has 10 kilo in stock. Jack, however, wants to make sure that the party will be a success. He is worried that the hunters could have bad luck and return without meat. During an interview session he met Lenny, the only man in the village who tries to keep goats, quite successfully by the way, regarding the circumstance that he has barely experience, and little help from government agencies. Jack proposes to see Lenny and ask him whether he would sell us one. A brilliant idea I find.

A well respected man.

Child.

On Friday morning we make our way to the owner of the goats.

Crew

I have to admit, that all goats look the same to me, so I need some expertise on finding out which of the animals is the most suitable for our purposes. Iain seems to be an expert. His judgment is quick and Lenny agrees: Yes, instead of taking one big animal, it is a much better option to pick out those smaller ones, that look really more tasty! Lenny makes a good price, we settle the deal and as none of us ever slaughtered a goat, and does not conceive this as the appropriate time to learn it, we make sure that this is included. On Saturday we’ll return and get the meat.

Carrying goat

Well, here is what happened the next day. Lenny has built this house for the goats. They normally graze on this piece of land, and use the house for shelter. Some kids and people from the village are joining us and help to chase the goats into the house. Jack and Iain enter the stable, and identify our goats immediately, which again I find surprising. Here you see them carrying the first one out. The goat is screaming and fighting, is if it knows what would happen next. Some people find it funny, some are merely silent and excited. I feel the tension and just hope it will be a quick job. Alas, you could not exactly call it a quick job, mainly because Lenny does not use a knife (which I somehow imagined), but instead prefers to do it with a hammer.

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