As you may recall, around Christmas time last year I high-tailed it out of Siavonga and had a little road trip with some friends of mine to Livingstone, Zambia’s tourist capital, where I partied, played and ate my face off for a week. I saw Victoria Falls, survived an intense baboon encounter and single-handedly prevented a Zambian tribal war (no big deal). This year, I opted for a calmer Christmas experience and decided to stay in Siavonga. It turned out to be a great decision. I had a nice little Christmas weekend with my good friends here in Siavonga.
The neighbors and I kicked things off on Christmas Eve with our usual celebratory practice of slaughtering a live animal. More chickens? No sir, not this Christmas Eve. This time we decided to step it up and go with a goat. Have you ever tasted goat meat before? It’s delicious. Boy, was I excited. A live goat costs around ZMK80,000 (US$17), a bit more than a chicken, but it’s more meat and I would say it tastes much better.
In what I would consider a tactical error, my neighbors purchased the goat a few days ahead of time, and to keep it from running away they tied it to a tree in our back yard. For days we had to listen to it whining and watched it occasionally try to make a getaway. Did it make me sad? Yes, yes it did. Did it stop me from killing and eating it? No, no it didn’t. After all, I’m a grown ass man and I had a family to feed.
Sadly, I did not have the opportunity to slaughter this particular goat, a skill I’ve been looking to acquire for some time. I was working on the computers with a couple of the Namumu girls and the boys next door went ahead and killed it without me (which I of course scolded them for because they know the rules…I do the killing, they do the cooking, we all do the eating…and how dare they violate said rules?) However, I did make it home in time to do a significant amount of slicing, chopping, skinning and disemboweling. I got some great action photos, as well as some nice before and afters of the goat for your viewing pleasure when I’m back Stateside. So be looking forward to that.
Anyway, I took a big hunk back home to my kitchen, cooked it up myself, soaked it in chipotle-flavored Tabasco sauce, and went to town. Mmm Mmm Mmm. No, Debra, it was no Cornish game hen, but man oh man it hit the spot.
The good times and good food continued on into Christmas Day as I awoke and kicked off Jesus’ birthday with a big bowl of Cocoa Puffs. I never get to have cereal out here, but a few days before I had tracked down a box in one of the stores in town and on Christmas morning I hammered it and hammered it hard. Delightful. Just delightful.
Like much of the Siavonga population I made it out to a Christmas morning church service. I joined my usual Siavonga church family out at St. Marks Presbyterian, including the big man, Munjongo Namuyamba. It was a small crowd but the singing was beautiful and the pastor’s words were lovely (the ones I could understand were lovely, anyway…the whole thing was in Tonga.) As is befitting a celebration of Jesus’ birthday, everyone was very happy.
Next, I made a trip out to the Pieterse’s place on Lake Kariba. The Pieterses own a local fishing company and have done a lot for Namumu over the years, doing repairs for our boats for free, dropping food by the orphanage for the kids every now and then, and I’m sure even more that I’m not even aware of. They’re great. They were nice enough to invite me over on Christmas Day, and I spent the day eating my face off and swimming in their pool. Not bad.
Finally, I made it back home to Namumu in the late afternoon to find all the kids packed into the dining hall and engaged in a wild, sweaty, high-energy dance party. Someone had hooked up a TV and speakers and they were pumping Zambian music videos at full blast. It was ridiculous. Let me tell you something, I’ve been a part of dance parties all across the US and all over southern Africa, and this was about as wild a dance party as I’ve ever seen. Everyone was so happy. I got some great video footage, too. I enjoyed myself about as much as I possibly could listening to music that’s not Lil Wayne. It was a great way to cap off the night.
So, while it would have been nice to celebrate Jesus’ birthday back home at Crestwood, I can’t complain too much at all.
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