Mbubo, Turkey! (Goodbye, Turkey!)

About everyone went to go see the turkey slaughter this morning. One of the Zambian staff members did the execution process. He used a broad-looking knife, got the turkey ready by tying up the feet and then scraping the knife blade against the rock. He also prepared a hole so that the blood could drain into. The head and throat were then sawed off while the guy stepped on the wings and legs so that the bird didn't flap around and spray us with his blood. The turkey was then hung upside down so all the blood would drain out. Then the Zambian showed us how to make a feather fan, braided the turkey's 'beard', and took pictures with some of the girls with the head of the turkey. Then, we poured the rest of the blood into little tin cups, toasted the drink, and gulped down that delicious, warm, metal-tasteing red liquid.

Not really! Actually, we didn't do anything with the blood, but we will be eating the turkey for Independence day, which is October 24th. But, the Zambian did make a joke about bending down and drinking the blood that was dribbling from the upside-down turkey's neck. Naturally, that joke got a lot of "Ewwwww!" responses from just about everyone, which made him laugh.

Out of courtesy to the people who are reading this blog and don't want to see the process, which we all took pictures of, the picture is only of the turkey alive.

On a non-fatal note: I went to Choma's library and museum today for our History field trip. It was really interesting to see in the museum what different kinds of information they had concerning the village life of the man and woman. The woman's main chores are to cook for her family and husband, housekeeping, childbearing, and making beers for special occasions or for men. The man's roles were hunting, fishing, providing food for the family, and other more important statuses, such as being the chief or a council member of the tribe. It was also interesting to note that a man's status in the tribe is determined by how many children, cows, wives, or land a man has. Apparently, their status isn't 'born-into', but earned by what they have or do. The library was another interesting place. Probably about 90% of the books were on the verge of their 10th year sitting on those shelves it seemed like, and the entire library had that 'old book' smell that some book readers love. There was a variety, but most of the books were educational and factual. I did find a book that talked about William Shakespeare's life story. Of course, the first chapter sentence was ' "What is in a name?" This was said by Juliet...' a very popular Shakespeare line. I personally like Hamlet better. I am not sure about the process of signing a book out, I am not sure that we could. But, I might go visit that library to read about Shakespeare sometime in the future.