Can I Stick my Fish in your Fridge?

Nope, the title is not a dirty come on, although I wouldn't put it past some of these moz men, but it is a frozen fishy reality in my life.

So I finally bought a refrigerator last month, and it has sort of revolutionized my life. I eat so much yogurt now I think my body is going into dairy overload shock.

But my freezer, on the other hand, is full of other people’s fish.n here begins with frying. Basically as soon as you buy the fish, you gotta fry it. Otherwise your doomed to fish smell and flies swarming your house.

That is, unless you have a freezer. I take that back, that is unless you or CAITLIN has a freezer that you can store the fish in.

Like I have literally had to make fish storage rules.

Ex: you must provide your own plate to place the fish on. I don't want your fish juice contaminating my sparkling new fabulous freezer, and I just don't have enough fine china (ie 50 cent plastic plates) to be letting everyone stick there fish on ‘em.

I actually got ahead of myself. Basic fish preparation begins with gutting… something I had never done before moving to Mozambique. I do have one memory of going fishing with my dad, and then he made me kill the catch by bashing it against a log. But the poor thing just wouldn't go easily, so there was a series of little girl fish log bashings going on. Slightly traumatizing.

Anyway, although I had killed a fish in my childhood, I had never ripped the guts out. So for the first four months at site, I just avoided eating fish altogether. No thank you, don't need to deal with fish guts and possible flashbacks to childhood traumas.

But finally, the boyfriend got to me.

“lets eat fish.”
“ok, but you have to clean it.”

See, in America, men do the dirty jobs and we get to look pretty and perpetuate this pristine white/porcelain/fragile/victim/virgin stereotype (Not sure how I managed to make the connection between virginity and fish guts, but lets go with it.) while in Mozambique, the women carry everything heavy, work in the farm, kill chickens/cows/fish/pigs/goats and then proceed to gut, skin and prepare them to cook, do all sorts of grilling, etc. Basically, the women kick ass, and are big strong don't mess with me mamas. It’s sort of inspiring… and frightening. I mean, I am not sure I want to do the gross/dirty things.

So anyway, the first time, Iraque took one for the team, challenged Mozambican gender roles, and cleaned the fish for me.

Fish cooking round 2, I went for it. Go big or go home right? I wanted fish and I needed protein. So I grabbed on, cut in, and ripped out.

Things I have learned about fish gutting:
1. Be careful when you pop the eyeball out because it tends to pop and squirt you in the face.
2. Always wear clothes you don't care about, or strategically drape yourself in capulanas because things are bound to get fishy.
3. The bigger the fish, the bigger the guts. Honestly, the big ocean fish have insides like human beings.
4. When you accidentally pop the intestines of the big ocean fish, poop comes out.
5. Fish poop smells bad.

Now, my roommate has bought another freezer. When I asked here why in the hell we needed another freezer in our house, she informed me that she is starting a business.

She will be selling fish out of the freezer in her bedroom. Just what we need. Bargain bedroom fish.