Remember those two "cows" Chris saw after the SLC whilst doing washing at Bingham? Well they were bulls. Haile my now permanent taxi driver tells me they are oxen. He told me this while we were going from Bingham to my clinic last Monday and dozens of these animals were being traded on the streets along with herds of sheep, goats and not a few chickens. I'm not sure about the ox thing - the animals are much smaller than what I would expect an ox to be. 7th January was Gena - the day Ethiopian Christians celebrate Christ's birth, and a good meal with family that includes fresh meat is part of the celebrations. Now, you may be able to guess how the fresh meat is obtained. If you are into animal rights and/or you are a bit squeamish, I am about to relate some things that you might find a tad unpleasant so you might like to click gere to skip to the bit about our Gena lunch with Seble.

The two bulls at Bingham had been bought by a group of the Ethiopian staff a week or so earlier as the price goes up so much as Gena approaches. Last Monday (Gena Eve, if you will) they were led to a slightly out of the way part of the compound and slaughtered. The workers then butchered them (mostly using an axe and a tree stump) and divided up the result - each contributor to the cost receiving around 25 Kg of meat (well, animal really - the stomach and intestines are also turned into food, and the skin to leather). However one organ didn't make it into these parcels - the liver. This is a great delicacy, so immediately after it's removed from the carcass the liver is cut into strips which are dipped into a spice powder and eaten - raw, and still warm. I wasn't there when this happened but Chris was - needless to say she immediately became an instant and strict vegetarian (something she's wanted to do for years I think).

When I came home from clinic the action was largely over, however not the fun. We have employed Seble ("Seb-leh") to do our housework three mornings a week and she phoned Chris shortly after I arrived back to ask if we would go to her home for Gena lunch the following day. We were honoured to be asked, and of course accepted, but we needed to obtain a gift for her and something for her two (as we had been told) children. So late on Gena Eve we grabbed a vehicle and headed off to buy something. Big mistake! The traffic was awful at a whole new level but I won't bore you with more traffic stories because I've gone on about it enough. Except for this bit - there was a bull/ox with big sharp horns loose on the ring road. I successfully dodged it, but when we'd done our shopping and were returning home back up the ring road it was still running around now pursued by a crowd of young Ethiopian men (thankfully none wearing red). Remember, this is one lane of a dual carriageway with concrete walls ether side and in the middle, not just any old road. A bemused crowd had gathered on one of the foot bridges over the ring road watching the action. We didn't wait to see the outcome (it had gone the next day) as we had to get home through the melee of traffic, people and animals. Sheep were being carried home to their doom in a variety of ways - we saw some standing on the top of a moving bus, and one being carried on a motorbike (neither the sheep nor the two other riders had a crash helmet on, silly them).

Gena dawned bright and warm with clear blue skies (how unusual...) At midday Seble came and collected us and walked us through the weirdly empty streets to her home for lunch. Her husband is a driver and was out at work, but her two children, two neighbour's children and a relative from way up north with her toddler were all there. Seble lives in two rooms - we were in the sitting room and the other room is where they all slept. We were made extraordinarily welcome as usual, and ate the lovely meal Seble had prepared for us, before anyone else ate. Fortunately Seble's English is several orders of magnitude better than my few words of Amharic, so we sat and chatted about her life and family. She worked in Dubai for a while and had obtained a Christmas tree whilst there which gave the room a lovely if slightly incongruous Christmassy feel. Next coffee was roasted, ground and brewed, and then, when we thought we had finished, Seble produced some steak and cooked us "tibs" - small strips of fried beef with green chillis and spices - on a camping gas burner in the bedroom, as there is no kitchen. The cooking finished in the sitting room on the charcoal burner used for brewing the coffee. So much for Chris's vegetarian intentions.

Seble has done occasional work at Bingham before, but works very hard at home making injera and ice lollies to sell in her neighbourhood. She cannot make a living like that. When she was asked to come to Bingham to work for us permanently she was weeping and praising God for his goodness. Another teacher has also given her some hours so she is now very pleased indeed. She has rapidly developed a reputation for being extremely good at what she does, especially the cleaning. We're hoping for a long and happy time having her help us in our home. Thank you Seble!

PS - check ot the galleries page for more photos but be warned there are some pictures of meat...