The Sudan; Darfur Goat BBQ

Back in 2008 when I was working in Darfur, Sudan my South African and Zimbabwean co- workers decided to throw a South African style BBQ to celebrate the completion of our new Kitchen building project.

We purchased a Goat from a local merchant in the town of Nyala which is the capital of southern Darfur. The Goat was killed in the Local Muslim fashion otherwise our Islamic brethren would not eat it or even touch the meat.

My good friends Patrick, Andrew and Hansie (The Bear) who were the Mofo’s in charge of this operation made a combination of spices and herbs mixed with coca cola then injected it into the meat by way of a syringe given to us by the medical staff.

Next we built a fire in the BBQ pit and wired the Goat to the rack and rubbed in a bit more of the coke and spice concoction,when the coals were just right Patrick and Hansie placed the Goat on the Spit and flipped the switch on the electric motor to operated the turning of the spit.

While the Goat was turning on the spit there was little for the rest of us to do except imbibe our favorite beverage. Mine consisted of  non alcoholic beer and some home made Russian “Vodka” made from potatoes, I like to call this mix “Desert Madness”, it had a good kick but smelled a bit like sweaty feet. Alcohol was difficult to obtain in the Sudan due to it being a Muslim country so one had to make due with what was available. I stood there with Patrick and Andrew sipping my concoction and watching the Goat turn on the spit. I began to salivate like a Pavlov dog in anticipation of this meal. I was looking forward to eating it because I had not had any food of this type for a while.
In fact, I think it had been about 2 years earlier when I was at a Cabrito (Goat) BBQ in Monterrey, Mexico. “I think” because in Mexico as most people know, Alcohol is available in every bottled form, so consequently the Tomahawk spent a lot of time sampling tequila.

Periodically Hansie would check the heat of the coals and adjust the flame/heat if necessary. I cannot remember the amount of time it took to cook this Goat but after it was done the boys from RSA cut it up in the new kitchen and the Goat was served with Salad, Local bread, Zimbabwe style corn mush, tomato sauce and a few other local dishes. all in all a pretty tasty way to celebrate the new kitchen facilities.

Darfur was an interesting place and we were a mixed group of guys from places like Canada, USA, Russia, India, and all of Africa, I genuinely liked and respected the majority of my co- workers which is more than I can say for other contracts I have worked on in the middle east and the Philippines,
I have served on many military contracts all over the world but they were all US military contracts, and I can honestly say that I didn’t enjoy any of them. But I did enjoy working in the Sudan because there were very few of my fellow Americans causing problems.

Needless to say but, I had a good time in The Sudan and would probably still be working there had the Sudanese government not kicked out all of the American citizen contractors working there.

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