Life and Death

The raw red orb bleeding light into the rice paddies at the ungodly hour of 5:30 AM was visually befitting of the occasion that brought us on the road at that hour. 

Mind you, 5:30 is practically afternoon here, as it is two and a half hours after everyone has woken up - everyone including me, because after subuh prayer my family watches very loud tv programs right outside my room that are quite difficult to sleep through.

So, as I was saying, at 5:30 we all cheerily embarked to perform a korban, or sacrificial slaughter, as part of an Islamic celebration known as Aqiqah. I had not heard of Aqiqah before today. It is a ceremony performed for a new-born by one of the child's guardians 7 (or 14 or 21) days after it is born. Aqiqah is both a tradition and an act of charity that, in so doing, will ensure the safety of the child. 

A few minutes into our drive we stopped. Yes, just like that, in the middle of the semi-busy road. My host father called home and asked for my host uncle. He forgot the knife. 

We waited. 

My host dad pulled over and went to use a restroom at a mosque we had stopped in front of. 

Uat, my uncle, appeared minutes later on his motorcycle. From the depths of his jacket he produced a sheathed knife and passed it to Umi through the window. 

All was well and we were off again, the sky now an unforgiving white. 

Once we arrived at my host sister's in-laws' house, we all crooned over Queenara, the newewst addition to the family. I wandered through the house and found a beautiful garden out back. A group of women sat on the tiled patio in a circle chopping and grinding up rich spices to prepare the goat with for buka puasa (break fasting). 

As it is Ramadhan now, the holiest month when Muslims do not eat or drink from dawn to dusk, roughly 15 hours here because they eat before the first prayer, the feast will not be enjoyed until after 

Maghrib prayer this evening at 6 o'clock. 

This is Queenara, the ignorant recipient of this bloody blessing. She was born last Friday, June 19th. An interesting fact about Aqiqah is that baby boys recieve two goat sacrifices, instead of one. Not that I'm advocating more slaughter to even out the gender disparity, I'm just taking note. More blood and more celebration in the name of baby boys.

The neck is cut over a hole in the ground to let the blood drain out. This is part of halal custom.

I picked the wrong time to read Lord of the Flies.

I don't know if this is the tradition, but the father, Deni, bought the goat. Cost was around 2 million rupiah, or 150 USD.  

Abi (my host father, pictured above making the sacrifice) enthusiastically encouraged me to take a photo with the recently slaughtered goat. If you're gonna watch, you might as well get up close and personal with the proceedings. 

My host family and I left after some more crooning and will return for the feast tonight. Although things slow down A LOT during Ramadhan (no school, people don't want to travel because they're fasting..etc) I am happy to be spending the first half of Ramadhan here in my community (before traveling around Indo with my dad!) because I actually feel relaxed at my site for once. Its amazing what less traffic and fewer people hanging around in the heat of the day can do for your aimless jaunts out of the house. I can go a whole day without people shouting "foreigner" at me in "my" own neighborhood! It feels like the best of lazy days in summers past when I could watch the unfrantic world around me with an inner smile.