A Memorable New Years Day

Happy New Year everyone,

Since the day we arrived in Kabala last September, the local New Years Day festivities had been hyped more than all three High School Musical movies put together. Kabala is situated within the Wara Wara mountains, and we were told (often) that many people come visit during the holidays, and climb the hill on the 1st of January.
Although we casually told probably hundreds of people that we would go with them up the hill, Adrienne and I had been officially invited up with the CRC staff a couple of months ago. At that time, we officially (double-use of “officially” intentional) volunteered our contributions for the festivities (how many cups of rice, how many soft drinks, etc. etc.). Adrienne and I committed to contributing the meat, which would be one goat.
After we returned from our holidays on the 30th, we thought we had to settle on beef or chicken because there were no more goats left, but, just like Abraham and Isaac (as JT put it), God provided a goat at the last minute on the 31st. Doomed as it was, he was a cute little thing, however I tried not to get to emotionally attached since we were quickly made aware that I would be the one with the honor of slaughtering the goat. ummmm…thank you?
Sure enough, the population in Kabala for New Years was at least double what it normally is – packed with people. There was cultural dancing, music blaring all day and night, and the markets were overcrowded (I got 15000 Le pickpocketed) and overpriced.
We arrived at our colleague Finah’s house at 7 AM to cook the food make all the preparations needed to go up the mountain. Of course, the first thing that had to happen was the slaughtering of the goat. After an ironically sad attempt on the goat’s behalf at escape, we soon had him pinned and ready. Putting aside a sudden urge to become a vegetarian I summoned up the courage to make the kill. I won’t go into details (pictures are below for you braver blog readers), but the blood splattered far enough to get on my face (….okay so I got into one detail).
Once the slaughtering was finished, Adrienne assisted in the cooking process, which took around 5 hours. Once that was finished, we walked up the hill (around 40 min. to 1 hour walk depending on the route taken), with enough food and drinks to feed around 50 people. (On a side note, it is remarkable how sure-footed, strong, and energetic the locals are when it comes to climbing that hill. At the top, all us white folks were sweaty, tired, and incredibly dirty from hiking through a wall of dust in 30 degree heat. Meanwhile, the locals, most of whom carried extremely heavy loads on their heads such as a 5 gallon bucket of water or a generator, reach the top, unabashedly change into their party clothes, and are looking instantly clean and fabulous).
It’s really hard to describe the atmosphere on top of the hill. Imagine a mix between Woodstock and a family picnic – only at the top of a mountain and with more brush fires. We tried to guess a total number of people up there and came up with anywhere between 5 and 10 thousand. On top were cultural dances, a night club-style dance area, a motorbike driving around which someone somehow drove/carried to the top, and a lot of general good natured partying (and of course some fisticuffs). And just in case by this time we weren’t sure of A. our place in the food chain, or B. whether or not we are in Africa, I was given the heart of the goat to eat during dinner.
The “walk” down was one of the craziest and most memorable experiences we’ve had since we’ve been here. Hundreds of people running/sliding down a narrow and extremely steep and dusty trail.
In short, we’re pretty sure we are never going to have a new years day quite like that one, and just like High School Musical III (wink), yes, it lived up to the hype.

Work begins for us again on Monday the 5th. We’ve had a fun and relaxing holiday, but it will be nice to get back to work and into routine life once again.