WARNING: this post contains images that may be disturbing to some. If you are opposed to the killing of animals, you may want to skip this post. Likewise, if you are one of my friends that uses this blog as an educational took for your children, you may wish to review it alone first so you can better explain what’s going on.

Killing animals: It’s a normal part of life here, but as Americans, we are often completely insulated from this part of eating (unless you are a hunter, or one of the few remaining small-time family farmers). Here, it’s what you do when you want meat for dinner. Tomorrow is Nas Palas’s birthday, so we’re going to eat kalnel (sheep) to celebrate.

We slept in today, being a national holiday and all (Independance Day), but I was woken up by Manuel yelling for me outside the clubhouse. “OK,” i thought, “I guess I can go out and be sociable.” I went outside into the yard to wash my face in the stream, and Nas walked up with a black, 4-horned ram (weird, another one!) on a rope. It looked mildly annoyed at being drug down here.

I remember them talking about eating kelnel, and immediately I figured out what was going to happen. The weird part is how FAST it all transpired. As i was standing there talking to them, Manuel tied a rope around the sheep’s hind legs, and they hoisted it upside-down from the roof beam of Nas’s front porch. Then, a knife appeared from somewhere, and while Rigo held the sheep’s forefeet and Manuel held his horns, Nas stuck him in the neck and sawed on his jugular.

Lina showed up with a big bucket, and collected the blood as it rushed out. Suprisingly, the sheep didn’t complain that much. There was no bleating or thrashing or carrying on, just plain old dyin’. Quite a bit of blood spewed out, and the two dogs looked pretty eager to get involved- but didn’t get too close. They know they can’t have any yummies until the humans are done.

Once all the blood was out (and handy idea, that- there was no blood during the rest of the butchery) they cut off the testicles and added them to the blood bucket, which then disappeared to become a tasty soup. It makes me sad that I am probably going to have to eat it tonite.

Next, off comes the skin. The whole process is much like skinning a deer. They were using TERRIBLE, dull knives, so i sharpened their knives while they worked. You can see in this picture that Manuel isn’t as good as Nas; he cut the skin several times.

Here we are detaching the head. Horns make convenient handles for twisting. I asked what happens with the head (which was left on the counter during most of the work) and they said it’s tasty and makes a good stew when you throw the trotters in with it. MMMM-mmmm. I will probably get to eat that too. 🙁

They used a machete to separate the ribcage (machetes are used for EVERYTHING here) but that wasn’t working for the sticky part, so hammering on the knife got the job done. Reminds me of when my dad used a hatchet to separate a deer pelvis, very Friday the 13th.

During all of this, the kids came by to check it out, a neighbor popped in to chat, etc. with not even a raised eyebrow. Try this in the front yard of your average surburban American home, and you can expect a visit from the police.

They quartered the animal up, and Masha took the chunks of meat, wiped them down, and carted them away to be cooked. Check out what she used: a sweater! Heck, just grab anything handy!

Manuel showed me a place where you need to dig a fatty mass out of the flesh of each hind leg. “If you cook it with this inside, it makes the meat taste bad,” he explained. I think the thing he pulled out is a lymph node, but i am not sure.

Nas pointed out that sheep is the only thing you can eat in Guatemala that is guaranteed not to have chemicals in it… the pigs, cows, and even chickens eat corn sometimes, and nowadays corn gets chemical fertilizer. Interesting. It’s still more healthy than many foods in America.

What struck me about all this entire process is the nonchalant way it was carried out. The whole business was started and done in about 20 minutes, and no one involved had any blood on them or anything (except the dumb dogs). These Mayans are EXPERTS. This is in contrast to the times when Dad and I have disassembled a deer after the productive hunt: an hours-long process, gore everywhere, and mandatory showers afterwards. Here’s a last picture of them taking down the sheep’s hindquarters. It’s intersting how skinny those things are under all that wool.