I’ve come up with a new way of defining the basic tenor of a household here: how they make this frothy (not-so-great-tasting) substance that tops a lot of food. It needs to be beat sort of like egg whites. There seem to be three major groupings in my experience:
1. Families that make it by beating it with their fingers. These are some of the same houses I’ve seen women using 2 stones to grind spices and smash tomatoes (like in National Geographic), don’t have running water inside, their seating is just some hay-stuffed pillows lying around the edges of the room. They might have stronger ties to rural areas, and seem to not be as aware of customs outside of their experiences.
1. Families that make it by beating it with their fingers. These are some of the same houses I’ve seen women using 2 stones to grind spices and smash tomatoes (like in National Geographic), don’t have running water inside, their seating is just some hay-stuffed pillows lying around the edges of the room. They might have stronger ties to rural areas, and seem to not be as aware of customs outside of their experiences.
2. Families that make it by beating with a fork. These houses seem to have some conveniences – maybe cushions to sit on as well as a back to their sitting area in the nicest sitting room, running water inside. Also, they may have more awareness of the world around them.
3. Families that make it (this is my favorite…) with an electric hand mixer. These seem to have it made – maybe even Western toilets and a full-on furnishings in several sitting rooms. Someone in the house probably speaks English and/or has international experience and is aware of (and even sometimes accommodating to) cultural differences.
Now, I know this isn’t certain (and could easily be broken down to economics in a lot of ways…but this is something tangible, something more social or warm), but, man, thinking about this and writing it down make me want to go to grad school. Political ethnographers are always making silly groupings like this that really make it too simple, but help distinguish what is very messy and unclear data in the first place. Makes the anomalies more fun too (I went to the village and saw someone using a hand mixer to make the frothy stuff in the one house with a generator…etc). And if the assumption or grouping turns out to be totally off that’s fun too because then your get to write a whole paragraph about how you were wrong and make whatever’s right seem even more interesting because it wasn’t the expected outcome. Soft science rocks, I tell you.
Anyway, one of my buddies around here is definitely part of an electric mixer family (seriously, they used an electric mixer to make the frothy stuff). So this family also apparently abides by the philosophy that even if you can eat meat all year long you still eat meat at the Eid (biggest holiday of the year) to “make up for the meat all year long." (that the poor people really don't eat all year). So here’s to goat! Which by the way, as a matter of hilarity (b/c you never thought you’d say this sentence in your life):”The goat escaped from the kitchen and came downstairs twice today, but that problem is soon over because we’re sacrificing him tomorrow.”
Now, I know this isn’t certain (and could easily be broken down to economics in a lot of ways…but this is something tangible, something more social or warm), but, man, thinking about this and writing it down make me want to go to grad school. Political ethnographers are always making silly groupings like this that really make it too simple, but help distinguish what is very messy and unclear data in the first place. Makes the anomalies more fun too (I went to the village and saw someone using a hand mixer to make the frothy stuff in the one house with a generator…etc). And if the assumption or grouping turns out to be totally off that’s fun too because then your get to write a whole paragraph about how you were wrong and make whatever’s right seem even more interesting because it wasn’t the expected outcome. Soft science rocks, I tell you.
Anyway, one of my buddies around here is definitely part of an electric mixer family (seriously, they used an electric mixer to make the frothy stuff). So this family also apparently abides by the philosophy that even if you can eat meat all year long you still eat meat at the Eid (biggest holiday of the year) to “make up for the meat all year long." (that the poor people really don't eat all year). So here’s to goat! Which by the way, as a matter of hilarity (b/c you never thought you’d say this sentence in your life):”The goat escaped from the kitchen and came downstairs twice today, but that problem is soon over because we’re sacrificing him tomorrow.”
A picture from my Christmas camping trip follows. I got to use a fresh water well...to bathe (or rather, pour water over myself a couple times during the salty four days). We'll talk more about wells and water later so this is a good image for me to be thinking on at the moment.
PS Thanks to Occasional Roomie S for the blog suggestion...and coffee.
