Woken at 5am by the call to prayer at the other side of the village, Michael is up to meet his nemesis, the squat toilet. Then outside to chat with Nirmal and some others who were keeping warm by a fire, not used to this unseasonably cold spring.
Michael comes back to get me just before 7 and we walk to the market in the next village for some chai. Every house in the village seems to be in the middle of butchering a goat for their festival feast, and I find it strange that others goats are so close by, seemingly unaware of what is happening to their kin. We see goats hanging and partially skinned, or further on in the process of being dissected, with intestines and other organs laid out on mats, the whole family gathered at each house to help or watch. It is quite a sight and not one we are comfortable with, yet what they are doing is very real. Everyone is completely in touch with the source of their food, they are confronted with the fact that a life was sacrificed to provide their meal. It is brutal to see it, but so much more respectful that what goes on behind closed doors in abattoirs so that we can just go into a supermarket and purchase a cleanly packaged lump of meat and not question where it came from or our conscience. Thankful today that I am a vegetarian.
Michael comes back to get me just before 7 and we walk to the market in the next village for some chai. Every house in the village seems to be in the middle of butchering a goat for their festival feast, and I find it strange that others goats are so close by, seemingly unaware of what is happening to their kin. We see goats hanging and partially skinned, or further on in the process of being dissected, with intestines and other organs laid out on mats, the whole family gathered at each house to help or watch. It is quite a sight and not one we are comfortable with, yet what they are doing is very real. Everyone is completely in touch with the source of their food, they are confronted with the fact that a life was sacrificed to provide their meal. It is brutal to see it, but so much more respectful that what goes on behind closed doors in abattoirs so that we can just go into a supermarket and purchase a cleanly packaged lump of meat and not question where it came from or our conscience. Thankful today that I am a vegetarian.