My Last Ethiopian Holiday

It is said that on Ethiopian Easter, or Fasika, some two million animals lose their lives in this country. As someone who spent years of her life not eating red meat, I feel it is the perfect place to make up for lost time.

I love Fasika. And I don’t love it in a Peace Corps sort of way. I don’t eagerly wait to see displays of culture. I don’t use the holiday as an opportunity to discuss the similarities and differences of America and Ethiopia. I don’t even particularly consider the religion ramifications of the day and how they relate to me. I love Fasika because it represents everything that is right in the world. Family, friends, and communities come together to eat, drink, and be merry. Every Christian home is full of food and everyone is welcome. Myself and other volunteers routinely receive countless offers to come into people’s homes and eat as much as humanly possible. People go from house to house in their small neighborhoods to create the best “crawl” experience in history.

One of the major aspects that make Fasika so special is the months leading up to it. In the Catholic faith, there is Lent. You give up something to show your devotion. In Ethiopia, what you are giving up is picked for you. For all Orthodox Christians (probably 50% of Asella), there is a 55-day fast. People are not allowed to eat any animal products for that period. In essence, they go vegan for two months.

Side Note 1: Ethiopians love meat. If you ask someone what their favorite food is, they will likely respond with chicken stew (called doro wat). Milk in coffee is a wonderful addition and the average Ethiopian drinks coffee three times a day. Most Ethiopians love to put butter in everything. Seriously, everything. It is a hair product here. To take all of that away from people is a serious hardship.

Side Note 2: The one advantage to the Fast is the vegan food here is incredible. There are such delicious dishes that don’t need meat. Lentils, chickpeas, kale, potatoes, are all cooked to perfection during the Fast because people are desperate for tasty food.

The Saturday before Fasika, I made plans to go to a large animal market filled with thousands of goats, sheep, and cows. Abel, Leslie, and I met at a coffee house near the Asella bus station. Ordinarily, being near the bus station results in a lot of unwanted attention. This day was completely different. There was an amazing atmosphere in Asella. Everyone was happy knowing tomorrow would be the big day. As I was walking to the coffee house, I ran into a Rastafarian who I have a bit of a history with. He has been known to yell rude things and follow forenjis all around town. On this day, he said hello, asked how I was, and then wished me a happy day. As we walked to the market (maybe 25 minutes), everyone was in a festive mood.

The animal market itself was a great time. I went last year before Fasika and it was mass chaos. This year was much more orderly. They had specific section for different types of animals. People showed off their livestock with pride. And, just like last year, eventually Abel and his brother Dagim separated from us to get a fair price. As Leslie and I waited for them, an older man tried to sell us his best sheep. A fair price for the animal would have been around 2,000 birr ($100), but he was willing to part with the animal for the low price of 4,000 birr. What a steal! Sadly, Abel and Dagim found the winner (or loser from its perspective) before we could jump on the opportunity.

Later in the day, Leslie and I headed to Abel’s house for the beginning of the celebration. In the time since we had parted, they had proceeded to kill and completely butcher the goat. Abel made delicious t’ibs (small, bite-sized pieces of meat) cooked with onions, pepper, and all sorts of spices. It was delicious and the best meat I had eaten in months (and that is a true compliment because I cheated often by eating meat during the 55-day fast). We stayed late into the evening and enjoyed a few cocktails. Abel recently went to visit his brother in Dubai so we were able to see pictures from his trip. Dubai seems weird. There is so much money there that the police drive Ferraris. I wouldn’t have believed it unless I saw the pictures. It was a great night filled with a lot of laughter and food- I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

At 11:00am the next morning, it was my landlady’s turn. She had prepared a mass amount of doro wat. Doro wat is one of my favorite foods. Not just in Ethiopia, but ever. This doro wat was made extra special because I had a strained relationship with the chicken in it. He lived in a coop right outside my bedroom window and had been waking me up at 4:00am every morning for a week. I was not sad to see him go. In fact, my only regret is that I was not the one to kill him. But doro wat is ridiculous. It takes a day to make. For every chicken, the recipe calls for 3-5 kilos (7-11 pounds) of onions. You let onions, garlic, ginger, and all sorts of other wonderful ingredients stew together until perfection. It is served with the onion base, a large piece of chicken, and a hardboiled egg. Faven piled my plate high and I was happy to take it down. We had coffee together and then I took a holiday nap.

In the early afternoon, the married couple that used to live in Asella called to wish me a happy Fasika. Joe, being the loving gentleman that he is, preceded to tell me everything he had eaten for Easter breakfast. He ended his rant with, “we ordered so much bacon, we actually just had to leave some on the counter to be thrown away.”  He went right for the jugular. On any other day, this would have been painful. But I instead told him of the doro wat I had just eaten and that I was heading to Tilahun’s for dinner. Both he and I know Tilahun’s cooking is better than all the bacon.

Tilahun’s cooking is always a treat. He is the best chef I have ever been lucky enough to eat from in my life. I have no doubt that if he opened a place back home, it would be all the rage. I eat at his house on every Ethiopian holiday. When my parents came to visit, he cooked an amazing feast and made special dishes for my mom since he slyly found out she loves lentils. Every time I am there, it is the best meal ever and Fasika was no different. He prepared a comical amount of food. When we arrived, we were given bread and homemade butter he had decided to make. The meal itself was incredible. He made some of the best t’ibs I’ve ever had. The doro wat was so flavorful and the chicken was tender. He had homemade cheese that somehow made the doro wat more rich and delicious. And finally, he made his world famous dulet. I don’t want to like dulet. Whenever I think about it, I immediately stop believing that I like it. Dulet is the intestinal lining of a goat or sheep cooked with spices, onions, peppers, and everything else that is good in this world. Oh, and it is usually served “rare”. I don’t want to like it and if I eat it anywhere else, I don’t. But then I take a bite of Tilahun’s dulet and he converts me again. The night ended with Leslie and I reading a story with Tilahun’s daughter Soliana, and, eventually, her falling asleep on me. It was a perfect way to end a perfect holiday weekend.

I guess the take away of this entry is simple: there is just no reason to be vegan. Occasionally, vegan food can be prepared well and makes a great meal. But to live that lifestyle forever is silly. Really, it’s just silly. If you are vegan and reading this and getting offended, that’s fine. If you had a proper diet in your system that included meat, you would be able to think straight and see that I’m right. Meat is good. And you know how I know that without being subjective? Tofu or the Ethiopian equivalent, Tasty Soya! If meat were bad, there would not be horrendous attempts at substitutions. The only way I made it through the Fast was by remembering that it would end in a glorious celebration where two million animals sacrifice themselves for the good of mankind. And after all, isn’t that what Easter is really about?