Another amazing sunset for a great day



The bowl of freshly butchered sheep



My brother Solemon holding a sheep's testicle, a special snack for Senegalese kids on Tabaski



My brothers busy preparing one of the sheep



My father Adama reading from the Quran during the prayer, his assistants holding the shawl behind his head



The men of the village lined up for the prayer before the slaughter



Adama approaches the gathering of men to lead the prayer



Prayer beads run through most of the mens' hands


We celebrated Tabaski the other day. Nothing since I've been here has more effectively demonstrated the base, native, brutal, hungry, and carniverous human appetite than this Muslim holiday that celebrates God telling Abraham to slaughter a sheep instead of his son to show his devotion and faith. Everyone in Senegal slaughters a sheep and it was my first chance to see this up close. My father Adama slaughtered two sheep and a goat.

My timid brothers transformed into butchers, each wielding a machete or freshly-sharpened knife, separating sinew from meat, meat from bone, bone from skin. Watching them reach into the sheeps' ribcages and literally tear their hearts out followed by lungs, liver, gallbladder, kidneys, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, and of course the testicles, I just couldn't help but think that the dissection units in American high school biology classes simply could never compare.

As my mother Tabara fanned the coals beneathed freshly extracted livers, my two year old brother Soloman carried around three testicles, each one much larger than his hands. My brother Modou was "beying" at me as held the decapitated head of our goat in front of his face. Pape hacked away at the ram's horns, shards of bone flying my way as I tried to snap a few photos of my family meat market.

Spots of blood decorated everyone except me and I don't think I've felt like such a foreigner or such a fragile Westerner until now. I think I will have to take part in the slaughter as a rite of passage into manhood before going back to the bright fluorescent, refrigerated meat aisle at the neighborhood grocery store at home.