Fasika

This post is a bit late seeing as how Fasika (Ethiopia Easter) was celebrated on April 12th. Better late than never though.

I was super excited about Fasika this year. Maybe because I hadn't had doro wat (chicken stew - the best dish in Ethiopia) in months and I hadn't had any meat in weeks because Ethiopians fast for two months prior to the holiday. But mostly I think I was excited because I knew this was my last major holiday in Ethiopia (that made me sad) and I really wanted to take it all in and be a part of it. So that's what I did.

You know a holiday's coming when chickens and sheep start showing up on your compound. Over a week before Fasika, my landlady had bought three of the biggest chickens I've ever seen in Ethiopia and a pretty decent sized sheep. My landlady kept calling the chickens "ferenje doro" or "foreigner chickens" because of their size. I guess she was calling us foreigners fat. I don’t know but I thought it was funny. So for a week we were woken up super early by the chickens. I was more than ready for their inevitable death at the end of the week.

A couple days prior to Fasika Ethiopians start making the beverages for the holiday. Keneto, a non-alcoholic drink for the children is made with barley. They also make tela, home-made wine. Saturday afternoon my landlady was finishing making these. As I walked past the storage room where she was cooking I asked her how it was coming along. She then handed me a full pitcher of tela to take back into my house and drink. It was 1:30pm. The celebrations were already beginning.

That night, the animals were slaughtered. The men kill the animals. It was pretty gruesome so I didn't take any pictures. They killed the sheep and then hung it upside down to drain all the blood out. Then they killed the chickens. The chickens were brought to my lady in the outdoor kitchen they have at the end of the compound. There she tore the dead chickens apart, all with her bare hands! It's so much work! I'm always so impressed when I see this done. It was a mess of feathers, organs, blood, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She went through the same process with five chickens! Three were for her family and the other two were for her mother (because her mother is older she does it for her). The stew had been cooked earlier and was sitting there in three huge pots. We were going to have enough doro wat for days. As my landlady cleaned the chickens we sat around her and kept her company, talking and drinking more tela. She didn't go to bed until after midnight.

The next morning Abigail, their daughter, came to wake me up for breakfast. Ethiopians start eating doro wat bright and early in the morning. Doro wat has tons of onions (we're talking several kilos) and is full of berbere (hot spice) so it can be a lot to take in that early, but I think I'm used to it by now. I love it. So I went to my landlady's home and we all ate chicken and drank tela, again! She also had prepared tibs (chopped up sheep meat) that morning and I got to eat that. After the meal my landlord pulled out the gin and poured us all a shot. And then another. It was 9:30am! I was so full and exhausted when I got back to my house and had to take a little nap. Because at noon I was invited to my neighbor's home for round 2. It was the same routine there. More doro wat and tela. I was so full and could only eat a little bit. At 3pm I was invited to one of my teacher's homes for another meal. That last one was rough. I didn't think I could eat another bite. If you don't eat it's considered rude so I tried and did my best, but that night I was not feeling well. When your body isn't used to eating meat, it's quite a lot of meat to take in all in one day. It was all worth it though. My last holiday in Ethiopia was wonderful. It's unbelievable to me that this was the last one. I remember my first one in Ethiopia. I celebrated Ethiopian New Year, September 11th, with my host family back during pre-service training. That feels like a different time. I remember feeling lost and so unsure back then. I'm so much more comfortable now. I feel at home. I definitely felt at home for Fasika this time around. I've come a long way and being able to see that progress is pretty great. When you first arrive here you have no idea if you'll make it and how it will all turn out. I'm so grateful that I've come this far and I've become comfortable here. I've made Ethiopia my home.