Rabbit!

Before dinner Fatou Sowe toasted what I later learned was a rabbit. All I saw at the time was a slab of meat roasting on the fire; the sight and smell intrigued me, so I continued seeing and smelling. After the rabbit was finished roasting, she cut it into bite-sized pieces, carefully counting out the pieces, but excluding me. I did not realize I was being excluded until all the pieces had been distributed and my hand remained empty.

Buba walked over and asked, “Binta, you will chew meat?” I said yes. He tore off a sliver of his and handed it to me. I overheard Fatou say that she had not given me a piece because she did not think I would eat it.
Mamadou, following Buba’s example, pulled off some charred bits and placed them in my open palm. E.B. handed me a bone with some clingy strands of meat available for gnawing off. Then Mamadou and Buba did the same. 

And yes, I accepted these offerings of charred, fatty, stringy, partially-chewed rabbit meat. I did not even worry about saliva-borne pathogens, not even a little. I briefly imagined a cute and soft bunny hopping gently through an African forest, but even that did not deter me from enjoying every morsel.