Meet...Obeyle and his sheep

 



Slaughter at sunset

Obeyle is one of the night guards at Nick and Lynne's. I first got to know him in September last year when I lived in their compound. He and the other workers were the first local people I met and my first informal language teachers, patiently repeating phrases and greetings. I've moved house but Obeyle still works his alternate fortnights nights at Nick and Lynne's. He lives near to our house and I often see him passing by. He is a very gentle man and as is customary, always stops to greet us. One of his sons, Joseph, is in Form 4 at Tirrim Secondary and Christina teaches one of his daughters, Christine, in Standard 7.

A few weeks ago he was keen to get some additional income and persuaded us to buy one of his sheep. We waited until a weekend and invited some of the secondary teachers round to help us eat it.

Obeyle arrived with the sheep, which was pretty big, and slaughtered it outside. Killing doesn't take too long, but it takes some time and skill to skin and cut it up. Whilst I might be able to manage chicken and rabbits, the sheep requires an expert!

Preparing the food was a communal affair. Just like in the UK, it was the men who roasted the meat outside over a fire; teacher Abednego and our guard Eysimbasele were in charge of this. Misha made chapattis with Mary (see below), Sarah made ugali (we learned that this requires a lot of strength to stir the pot) and I made stew with the meat that wasn't roasted. Oh my, there was so much food!

 

We had fun cooking and eating together with our guests, listening to an interesting mix of music and playing some traditional African games.