Good Eats *With Pictures*

Just a reminder, if you haven't, check the previous blog for the best music ever. K?

This week at work has just about nothing interest to discuss. But after work on Wednesday I tried my second attempt at bat-hunting. I was unsuccessful. That night, Awine and I went on another little expedition.
We went on foot to a friend’s home. It was a long walk, but it was worth it. The home of his friend was in the traditional style of the area: a group of circular huts arranged in a circle with a large open space in the middle, a courtyard, if you will. When we entered it seemed that everyone was just kind of laying around, relaxing, and avoiding the heat inside the huts. Nobody in the family of 8, other than Awine’s friend and two young girls, spoke much English, so they thought it was great as Awine assisted me in making small-talk with them in Dagbani. They were also excited to show me their living space, since I had never entered one of these traditional homes before. The two girls showed me their hut first. It had a small door that I had to duck down quite a bit to enter. Inside they had a couple of small lights on, and it was very cozy. I don’t know what is practical about a round hut, as they seem to waste a bit of space with rectangular beds, but I am sure there is a reason. There was something about it that made me feel like it would be fun to have this kind of little hut up in the mountains. There were 6 huts in all, and the one that had a little round hole for a door was for their chickens. They also had a few goats and a dog.
We stayed there for a while and then went with Awine’s friend to another friend’s place, a small room in a concrete “U” of rooms. We sat and talked for a bit and somebody randomly turned on a bootleg DVD of “Blood Diamond”. If you haven’t seen this movie, see it. Sometimes it is a bit too Hollywood and the journalist character is pretty ridiculous and far-fetched, but it is a very fascinating portrayal of the horrific war in Sierra Leone (where I almost went instead of Ghana). It was also interesting to watch it with Africans, as they gasped at the shocking atrocities that had happened less than 700 miles from them. With the amount of war or conflict in Africa, even in close proximity to Ghana in recent memory (Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Guinea) I kind of expected them to see the movie with a very matter-of-fact attitude. However, their aghast looks, amazed at what Africans would do to each other, and what a white man would do for money, was further proof of Ghana’s reputation of a peace-loving nation, though revealing of my new friends’ naivety.
Regardless of this, however, Awine’s dream is to serve in the army. He cannot, however, because there is an initial fee of about $400 to enter, as well as fees for training during the first 6 months. His brother is in the army (and was actually in Sierra Leone as a mercenary I believe), as was his father, who fought in WWII (he fought in Cambodia, Burma, etc.) and his grandfather, who fought in WWI (though I am not sure if the math works out on this one). He asked me if it was possible to become a U.S. citizen by serving in the military (as my grandfather had done in WWII), though I didn’t know. I imagine not, as I think we would have a much larger army. I discouraged him from this anyway, as there is a good chance that he would serve in Iraq, a war that I am against. I agreed with his sentiment that it is a noble thing to serve your country, but it was hard for me to come to terms with serving your country for an unjust war that really (in my opinion) has not and will not benefit our people.
Throughout the film (which people here insist on pronouncing as “flim”) we kept getting some weird power surges that would shut off the TV. About ten minutes before the movie was over, it happened again, and we couldn’t get the TV to come back on. I told them that all the main characters die in the end…just kidding.
When we got home, I had to make a call to America and I received some awesome news!
The next evening when I got back from work I continued to hone my slingshot skills under the mango tree in front of the house. The little girls from next door joined me as usual and eventually asked if they could try. Both of their attempts were laughable, as they weren’t quite strong enough to pull back the thick rubber band. Just as I was showing one of them the proper way to hold it and the best technique to shoot small flying animals, two very attractive white girls passed by. I gave a sheepish hello, and they just had this curious look on their faces like, “is this guy really teaching little girls how to hunt bats?” Whatever. I was teaching them a life skill. I was teaching to fish, so to speak, feeding them for a lifetime! Well, I still couldn’t even do it myself, but my aim was getting better, and I think I probably injured at least one bat that day.
Awine came out to see what was going on and he grabbed the slingshot to show me up. About 4 stones later, and a screaming bat was falling through the branches. The whole time I was trying to shoot them, I had this fear that I would actually get one, because I really had no idea what to do with it.
I have never seen a bat up close, and while it is true that they are a lot like flying rats, it mostly reminded me of a mix between the vampires in I am Legend and the zombies in 28 Days Later. It has had a huge mouth with plenty of sharp teeth that it kept flailing about. It was kind of sad, as it’s only wound was a broken wing, and it was still very much alive. I was very scared of the little thing, as were the girls, because of its loud screams and intense flapping about. I started to change my mind about actually eating one of these things.

Please click this photo to enlarge it and see, close-up,
the pure terror that are Ghanaian bats!

5 minutes later and Awine had gotten a second bat. We were about to hav a feast! Eventually Therese, the Dutch girl that lives next door came by. She was pretty curious, but also not too keen on the idea of killing them for food. We called her friend, Linda, who is a devout vegetarian. She somehow already knew why we were calling and refused to come over for the slaughter.
We settled on 2 bats as it was almost dark. Awine took them out back and slit their throats, cutting all the way through their esophagus as they let out a final gurgling cry, bits of blood squirting to the beat of their heart. Like that imagery? He then peeled the skin off its body (which relieved me as they were surprisingly hairy). Now this naked red mass with razor teeth and light brown eyes looked straight from a horror film. Awine tossed away the intestines, lungs (very large) and other organs, which surprise me as it was about half the meat on this little bugger. Then he tugged at the tongue, which stretched a good two inches out of its mouth. He said some people enjoy the tongue raw. I wouldn’t be opposed to marinating it with lime and salt and cooking it in spices, but raw? Not yet.

*I have some more graphic images of the
slaughter, but I figured I would spare you.

We (no, actually just Awine) rubbed the bats with some spices (not sure which) and I told him to squeeze some lime on them. Then we put them on a grill over some coals and let them cook. We also had some rice simmering and Awine had already made a tasty tomato and cabbage stew. After about 20 minutes the bats were ready and Awine ground some peppers into a paste to use with the bats.

Bats are on the barbie as the little girl that lives next
door watches. She's pretty cool and
speaks better English than almost anyone I have met here.

Now that the little rodents looked more like edible meat, rather than horror movie creatures, it was easy to eat them. The meat was tasty, though there was not much of it. Some parts of it were easiest to just chew up the small bones with the meat. I liked the crunch, which reminded me of eating the bones of sardines. I was now even more excited about the mango trees in front of and behind our house, as they provided TWO foods! I think I am gonna try to make some mango curry with bat in it! That would be rad! Bat is probably the most extreme food I have eaten, though not the worst by a long shot. I would much rather eat bat than sea turtle, cow udder tacos, or green beans…gross. What about fried meal worms or cockroaches? Are those more extreme than bat? Either way, they were pretty good. But seriously, thinking of green beans right now makes me seriously want to puke.
During our meal I played Yusef Islam’s version of call to prayer for Awine. We hear call to prayer 5 times throughout the day, and it is usually just not that…pretty. He liked Yusef’s (formerly Cat Stevens), but after a brief discussion of Islam, Awine said that Muslims are “wicked people”. I was fairly shocked as I had never heard anybody here be so up front on their opinion on another religion. However, I had sensed that there is a big disconnect in Ghana between the Christian and Muslim population. From what I have seen, my interpretation is that the Muslims stick together and keep a tight-knit community, while the Christians see their constant prayer as bizarre behavior. I couldn’t just sit there with Awine’s comment hanging there, so I had to ask him why he thought Muslims were so bad. “They kill their wives and then they burn them!” he said. This seemed kind of ridiculous, and as expected, he said he only knew of it happening once. “Does the Koran say that it is alright to burn your wife?” I asked. He didn’t know. I explained that Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists can all do evil things, and it has nothing to do with the religion itself. I also told him that I have Muslim friends in American that are some of the most kind and hospitable people I have ever met. He was surprised to hear that there are Muslims in America, and I was surprised to hear that he didn’t have any Muslim friends in this predominantly Muslim city. Is that what happens when you have enough people in a certain population to only associate with “your kind”. I imagine for Muslims in America it is difficult to only make friends with Muslims, since there are not that many. Here in Tamale, there are enough Christians that it is possible to only associate with Christians. In fact, because I know most people through Awine, the only Muslims I know are through work. After he realized he could not really argue with my denial of Muslims as “wicked people”, he seemed somewhat dejected and quiet, and I felt kinda bad.
After our meal we went on a walk. I never really know where we are going when Awine says “let’s go for a walk”, but I know it’s better just to go with it. He always makes sure not to take any of the main roads, so that I learn how to navigate the dirt alleyways, and makeshift paths between roads. I have never told Awine how much I enjoy these little adventures, but I am glad he keeps bringing me along on them, even though the long walks wear me out.
After becoming completely disoriented from all the meandering through dirt paths in the dark, we arrived at a “spot” we had been to a week before, though from a completely different direction somehow. Awine’s girlfriend was already there waiting for us. Overall, it seemed a bit tense that evening as we had a round of beers. Awine seemed annoyed with his girlfriend, and they wanted me to help settle their dispute. I told them I wanted to stay out of it, but they insisted. The girlfriend (who’s name I still can’t remember) was mad because Awine told her not to go out alone after seven. His reasoning is that she goes to bars and drinks too many beers. I said that he should let her do what she wants, and he should trust her. He said that women shouldn’t drink so much. “But it’s fine for men to drink?” I asked. Awine agreed with that, though he said that he never has more than one or two beers, which I have seen to be true, but his girlfriend drinks a lot more. “And after a woman has taken so much to drink, then the next day she is tired and cannot pound fufu for me! If I am hungry, and she cannot cook, what can I do?” he asked. This attitude, while common here was too much for me, and it was hard for me to agree with him. However, it all related back to the idea of a relationship as “exchange”, which I have found to be very common here through observation and a book that I have read. The idea is not foreign to must cultures either. It is the simple idea that a woman’s role is just to cook, raise kids, and keep the house nice, while the man provides for the family. If a woman drinks too much, what kind of mother and husband would she be the next day? It would be unfair to Awine to work all day and come home and have to cook his own food while his wife is still sleeping. And it was hard to say that Awine had a double standard for his girlfriend as he never drank more than a couple beers, so that he was able to work the next day. It was still uncomfortable, though, to hear him be so controlling of her, and demanding that she not go out alone after 7. I tried to avoid involvement, mostly because it was difficult to explain that a man should not have that much power over a woman, when I am in a culture in which relationships do not operate the same way as I am used to.
On the walk home, Awine seemed frustrated, and I felt bad for disagreeing with him. It was true that his girlfriend did seem a bit lazy, and just wants to have a good time all the time, but I couldn’t agree with him telling her what she can or cannot do.
And today is Friday. I had an unproductive week. I was told that the reason that I am not getting into the field much is that due to budget cuts, they couldn’t send people out unless it was really necessary, and for me to come along was even less likely. It looks like I will be working on weekends so that I can accomplish something. Next weekend there is a group of American Bishops coming to visit projects and I am lucky enough to document that. Am I being sarcastic? Yeah, mostly. I mean I would not mind doing that if I was also able to go into the field to produce human interest stories like I came here to do. The next weekend I may be going with staff member on a privately funded trip to the field so I am able to visit the communities and actually document what is going on in them.

Have a good Valentine’s Day suckas!