blood, guts and a bbq...a day in the life of a butcher...

Recently I have befriended a street vendor in Tamale that prepares and barbeques guinea fowl, sausages and kabobs. There are plenty of “red” meat and kabob vendors but the guinea fowl option is really limited. To my knowledge he is the only one in Tamale. I discovered him through a colleague at work who was out to buy lunch one day and thought that I might enjoy some barbequed guinea fowl. He was definitely right I really did enjoy it and went back again the very next day for some more. Three days later, with the taste bud dancing thought of more lingering, I headed back to try and find their secret to success.

I soon met Saani who is the son of the owner and find that he is more than willing to explain how everything works. I arrived that first evening after work, the stall is located off the main road of Tamale near “Victory Cinema” which is surprisingly difficult to find at least for me and it took me a while to get there each time. Anyways by the time I arrive in the early evening the majority of the work has already been completed and all that really remains is turning the meat and watching to make sure it does not burn before someone purchases it. Saani suggests that I should come by on Saturday around lunch and we can work together so he can show me “start to finish”. I think I’m up for it and ask him what time the fowls arrive and when do we slaughter them.

His first reaction is to shoot a glance at his father who gives a nonchalant shrug then Saani turns back to me and asks “don’t you fear blood?”. (Well honestly I’m not too sure, I don’t think so but I guess I will soon find out.) I respond with a question to him and ask “should I fear blood?” His response is not so much of an answer to my question but a justification for asking his “you don’t have white butchers in your country, do you?” After a bit more of a discussion I find out that he believes that the majority of “westerners” don’t do hands-on or physical labour types of work like being a butcher or a farmer and we have either technology or “other” people for those jobs (insert non-western background). I’m not sure if he convinced or not on either our workforce or if I’ll show up on the weekend, but I leave that day with a date for Saturday morning with a dozen guinea fowl, a butcher and a knife. So I have pretty much set up for my last weekend in Tamale to be spent with a butcher learning.

Saturday eventually roles around and I am off to the butcher at just before 9 am. Of course for some strange reason I arrive early and stranger yet expect someone to be there by 9 am (the agreed upon time). Of course it is never that easy. I ask around a bit and eventual leave a message with a “watchee” woman that I will be back to see Saani in about an hour. I spend the time in an internet café catching up on some emails and work and check back at around 10. An hour later and still no one there but this time a young boy is sent to their house and I find out they will be at the stand within the hour. It’s about a quarter to eleven before everyone actually gets there and any real work starts. If this was during my first weeks here it would have drove me crazy but I have become quite comfortable with finding things to do in the “waiting for things to happen/why did you expect this to start on time/it’s raining out/where’s the tro-tro/something is spoiled” time.

Anyways, shortly after eleven we are elbows deep in cow, goat and sheep parts. Mainly vital organs or entrails that we are cleaning and cutting into smaller pieces to eventually make kabobs and sausages. The main slaughter house in Tamale “prepares” all the larger animals and a truck stops by periodically with about 50 lbs of liver, heart and intestines from goats, sheep and cow. Saani father the master butcher is the only one who cuts the liver and heart into cube sized pieces that we place on the kabob sticks (4 livers and one heart cube on the end). After all the kabobs are complete we season them and place them on the grill.

By now it is about 1:30 and the first farmer rides up on his bicycle with about 8 guinea fowl. After a bit of haggling about the price Saani’s father buys the lot for 30,000 cedis each (about $4). Saani grabs the fowl and we head to the back of the shop where he gets straight to work on them. He first shows me how to hold it and where to make the required incisions and then how to tie it up to let it bleed out. He only shows me on the first one them expects that I have it down. Well my first attempt didn’t go so well and I got a bit “wet” along with Saani. He demonstrates again on the third fowl and I refine my skill on the remainder. Eventually by the last one I have it pretty close (i.e. at least I’m no longer getting sprayed). At just after 2 pm we take a break for lunch a bit of watchee from the same women I spoke to in the morning. Of course we eat it communally and with minimal water and time to wash hands with there is still a bit of congealed blood on both of our hands but he doesn’t seem to mind so I just try and ignore it. If I was every going to convert to vegetarianism this was going to be it, but no dice. After lunch we continue to de-feather and dress the fowl and soon are seasoning and barbequing. The fowl are ready relatively quickly and soon enough patrons and arriving to purchase them and are equally interesting in my butchering abilities as their fowl. I find it very difficult to turn the meat as I haven’t developed the calluses necessary to turn a piece over that I feel is red hot. Saani has a good laugh at this and helps me with some and watches me struggle with others. So we sell the fowls for 40,000 cedis (about $5) which is only around a $1 profit margin. We sell about 12 fowl that day and there are 5 of us working. That is not very much to go around considering there is still the cost of charcoal, seasoning and supplies that need to be bought. I wonder if it is even worth it. Saani and his father work everyday of the week from about 11 am until all the meat is sold which could be as late as 10 pm. About an 8 or 9 hour shift for a dollar Canadian (kinda makes the job flippin burgers in Canada look pretty good). It’s amazing what perspective can do. At the end of the day I get wrangled into agreeing to help out again the next day and spend some of Sunday in the same manner. Overall pretty good learning experience and a good way to spend my last weekend in Tamale.

Who knows when I get back home maybe I’ll start up a little guinea fowl farm/bbq spot.

Take Care and God Bless,
Jason