M'eat the Goat

One night my friend and I were at the bar having dinner and drinks and we were talking about birthdays. He tells me that his birthday is around the same time as mine. Immediately I get this idea in my head, I say 'we should celebrate together and throw a big party.' his eyes got real big and he said 'yes, that's a great idea.' We decide that we're going to bring our groups of friends together, the German development workers, the Peace Corps Volunteers, and our Beninese friends. We begin planning. What can we do now that we have lots of people to celebrate with? What better way to celebrate than slaughtering a goat?! And so the M'eat The Goat party was born.
We think about this idea. We need to find a bar, find a person to cook the goat. We were thinking of renting out a bar for the night but then decided this was going to be too much because then we'd have to hire a separate person to cook everything and then they would have to either cook it there, or we would all have to go to where she was cooking the goat. We decide to have the party at the same bar that we came up with the idea, skipping around a lot of logistical problems. The food is really good, the beer is always cold, this combination in Benin is hard to find. So we come up to her and tell her our plan. She has been harping on us to have a party at her bar one of these days. This was perfect. We tell her that we want goat, and she then talks to us about other food options. As much as I like goat, there also had to be something else. She asked how we wanted the goat prepared, we told her in sauce. We told her we wanted rice and yam pilee and she then asked us about types of sauces, specific ways of cooking the goat, and we were lost. We had never prepared a goat before. We gave her culinary freedom and said that we trusted her ability to come up with something delicious. My image of the party was that a person could eat either rice or yam pilee, whichever they wanted, with sauce, and goat. There would be a vegetarian option of wagasi. Pretty easy.
We get to the party and I inspect the food and talk to mama she has set up some tables near the dance floor. Good choice. Then she showed me the food, she had clearly been cooking all day long with her help. She took the lid off the rice, and it had cabbage, peas and carrots in it! This is exciting, she put vegetables in the rice! We were all expecting plain rice. She had made it even better. I told her this was excellent. People arrive and my german birthday friend and I had already decided we'd pay for the first round of drinks, so everyone gets a Beniniose (the Beninese equivalent to a Budweiser). After that everyone paid as they went. Then mama brings out the food. Everyone gets a plate of rice to start with a couple pieces of goat. I then saw what was happening when we said rice and yam pilee she thought we meant a course of rice and a course of yam pilee. This is actually kind of standard for Beninese parties, a coruse of rice and then a course of something else. I inwardly laughed, mama was giving a true Beninese party, and she did what she thought was best. Next the yam pilee, with peanut sauce and a piece of goat and wagasi. Mama had clearly taken her job very seriously to have made peanut sauce. In order to make peanut sauce they have to start with peanuts, that they grind by hand, making peanut butter. Mama has never made peanut sauce before for us.
Then a friend hooked up his laptop to the speakers at the bar and we danced to some music of each culture represented. My birthday friend and I decided that this was a huge success. We played American drinking games, we danced like Beninese and we all learned a few colorful German words, (which I seem to have forgotten). Overall a great evening of cultural exchange.