As an international student from a very dry sub-Saharan country, I miss seeing the desert and flat land here in Flagstaff. To break up with this monotony, Dahamane from Mali, Mansour from Yemen and I decided to drive 2 1/2 hours Northeast of Flagstaff to visit a Hopi reservation. I was curious to learn about the Hopi and Navajo (pronounced as navaho) people's life style. I wanted to see how similar they are to the Fulani or Tuareg people in Niger. Unlike the Niger nomads the Navajo are sedentary herdsmen. They breed sheep and goats. They prefer a rural life style to city life.
In fact our visit was more than pure curiosity. We wanted fresh meat and thought we could buy and butcher sheep at the reservation, and then bring the fresh meat to our houses. I have never skinned a ship in my life, but here I have to because it's expensive to hire somebody to do it for you. So, we all skinned and cut our own sheep with the help of Colleen, the owner of the ranch. Colleen is a hospitable person and a hard worker. Although the sheep cost $150 each, she only charged us $280 for all the three animals. We were more than happy about this discount gesture. Colleen lives in her reservation with her mother, brother, and her sister Lydia. They were very happy to see us. The second picture on the top right of this page is Colleen's mother's room. It is very warm inside.
Besides helping us, Colleen also taught us slaughtering and skinning techniques both of which we found very effective because we finished our job in less than 3 hours. I did not know that sheep feel "honored" when you slaughter them to eat the meat.
We promise to go back during Tabaski (a Muslim Holiday during which sheep are slaughtered for sacrifice) for more slaughtering. I did not upload any pictures of the butchery because I don't want to hurt your feelings.
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