Last night I laid on my camp bed and looked up to the rafters of the barn. It was the first Christmas Eve in many years where I haven't been to the pub and it felt quite refreshing to be able to take everything in (and not fall asleep to the Christmas 24 channel with a sausage roll in my mouth) I would feel even more refreshed tomorrow compared to previous Christmas days as well and so to finish my Christmas Eve I put my music on and listened to my two Christmas songs a few times.
The rooms of the station block aren't completely sealed and so you can hear from one end to the other. I could hear a noise continuously repeating itself and couldn't work out what it was over the top of "Fairy tale of New York." I stopped my music and could hear it was Isaac praying. Isaac was clearly a very religious man and his prayer was quite frankly a thing of beauty. The officers here are not exactly supported by their own government, they are far from home and stay here up to 5 months at a time. They have to pay for their own resources out of their wages and are equipped with less than the tribes that they are trying to contain and resume peace with.
You could say this particular department of the police was like an NGO in itself, they have nothing and despite all of this, Isaac's prayer was a good 15minutes of constant thanks, not one request. I compare this mentality with the western world and it really makes you embarrassed more than anything. Isaac is a special guy and I sensed that from the second I met him. A person always smiling that brings the best out of others. A person that will put everyone before himself and a guy that you want to spend more time around. When people want to spend more time with you then that has to be the best characteristic to have in my eyes.
I dropped off to sleep peacefully and safe in an area of the world that is far from safe. It was a windy night and the loose corrugated roof battered up and down on the buildings. I woke up to the sound of the head of police radioing through to all the different stations and wishing them a Merry Christmas. I was absolutely covered in slobber, the howling wind didn't prevent me from eventually getting a really good sleep.
I made my own breakfast of pasta as the others had already eaten. I had to use their coal fire (jinka) as my petrol had typically ran out but I didn't eat much as John said the feast would begin in a few hours.
From start to finish my Christmas Day was centred around the food. To start with, unlike any other Christmas I have ever had, I saw my feast walk to the area where he would get slaughtered. He was a big goat and even though "slaughtered" sounds bad, they said it was better than saying "killed" as when you kill something it means you will just leave it for dead. This was far from the case with this goat, absolutely everything was getting eaten.
I wanted to watch the whole process so I pulled up a chair and watched the best lesson in Science and the anatomy of a goat that I could've wished for. Not everybody's ideal Christmas (especially not my vegetarian sister's) but I was fascinated and the guys were very professional and direct about the whole process.
It took a long time to prepare and wash everything and as this was all going on in one area of the station, at the other end an Ethiopian fisherman was gutting and preparing fish for the officers to sell for chicken feed. Everywhere you looked there seemed to be dead animals and food preparation. The Ethiopians were still waiting for their animals to return so they would trade with the officers and the officers would let them use their facilities and also share their feast with them.
I bounced between both areas but was really taken in by all the different parts of the goat and how each part was going to be cooked and eaten. Two Officers drank the goats blood straight out of the cup and one officer originated from the Kenyan Masai tribe where it is tradition to eat the pancreas raw. I'm not one to sit back so I got stuck in with that and he let me have some. It was ok, it tasted like raw egg yolk and was a far cry from my usual Buck's Fizz and croissants.
After all the food was prepped and ready for cooking I could tell a few officers were lagging from their party the night before. The few that were powering through though fried up the heart, liver and kidneys and we ate that at around 11 o'clock. Half an hour or so past and the stomach and intestines were ready for taste testing. Luckily i have no problem with eating absolutely anything but in this situation it was probably advantageous to not look at it going in. The intestines looked exactly how you would imagine and the stomach that had turned inside out, looked like a bobbly sea urchin. The stomach was actually my favourite and so as the 6 or 7 of us sat around picking out bite size pieces of the goat's digestive system I was keeping an eye out for good bobbly bits of stomach. This was exactly like home I thought, I would do exactly the same with my family only substitute "goat's digestive system" with "box of celebrations" and change "stomach" to Maltesers!!!
After the fried innards we had a couple of hours of just chatting in the shade. The sun was really beating down so it was best just to sit and do nothing. I tried some of the officer's home brew. It was nice and sweet but one cup was enough. No means of refrigeration meant that boiling hot home brew was probably not the best idea if I wanted to stand up straight later. Most of the conversation was in Swahili so i didn't have a clue what they were laughing about. The guys were all telling stories about what happened last night but I was just happy to sit and relax. I was positioned fairly close to where the food was being cooked so was in a good spot to try every part of the goat.
Next were the ribs that were steamed over a coal fire and then by the time we had finished picking at them, our main meal was ready. The main meal consisted of goat meat and ugali. Ugali is a staple food for Kenyans and is made by mixing maize and water together. The consistency would do a good job in patching up most cracks in your garden wall. Any runnier and it would be wallpaper paste, any drier and it would be cement.
It was a decent feed as far as filling you up goes. It was also an interesting experience to have simple bare ingredients. As I've said, the Officers have nothing so with the goats meat they just added salt and onions and so i could really taste the difference with every different part of goat. After dinner the noise levels seemed to drop and the tiredness seemed to catch up with everyone. In true Christmas afternoon fashion, the majority went to sleep and I stayed sat in the shade talking to Antonio, another Officer who was much like Isaac. It was a great chat and I really enjoyed relaxing in the breeze.
No TV, board games, cards or liar dice this Christmas, I could've bust out my top trumps but I guess I was just enjoying the conversation too much. For supper there were only 4 of us remaining and as the stars came out we enjoyed some more goat meat with rice this time. The highlight of the supper was not being back under the stars again though, it was by far and away the ginger tea. It was as if the gingerbread man had drowned in a cup of hot milk and the whole experience was like Christmas in my hands! I would even go as far as to say that it beats Ethiopian coffee, call me crazy but that's just my opinion.
I retreated back to my bed before the Mosquitos set up camp on the whole of my leg (they've already taken my ankles) and put close on what will probably go down as the most memorable Christmas Day I have ever had. I have been lucky enough to have some absolutely amazing Christmases but its fair to say this one warrants its own category, a massive thank you goes to the fine officers of Todenyang Police Department, and the goat for everything I've experienced today.
Merry Christmas everyone.
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