So this past weekend Muslims celebrated their biggest holiday of the year. On Saturday we celebrated Le Aid Kibir. The holiday celebrates the story of God telling Abraham to kill his son and that at the last minute he spared him. So to symbolize this every man in a household kills a sheep. So that meant in my house there were to sheep that we killed. For any vegetarian or animal rights activist this would not be their favorite holiday.

The day started with my host mom/sister Fatima knocking on my door and wishing me a happy Le Aid. I got up and went and joined the rest of the family in the salon for breakfast. It was Fatima, her brother Mohammad and his wife Fatiha, Fatima's other brother and his 5 year old son, Mowad. We all shared a large plate of Oatmeal type stuff and had cake and cookies and tea. Then it was time for the killings. My family told me i didn't have to watch if i didn't want to, but i said i wanted to watch it all. So i was sitting in my bedroom looking at a book when out of the corner of my eye i saw a sheep walk past my door in the courtyard. I jumped up, grabbed my camera and ran out to watch. Fatima brought over a stool for me to sit on and watch. Mowad's 4 year old sister came to the house and she sat on my lap and watched the first sheep die with me. It was kinda cool to see. They held it down and the men cut its neck. Blood squirted everywhere when they killed the first sheep. Marium and i had to jump out of the way so we didnt get blood on us.

Then once it was it was dead the cut a hole in the skin of the leg and one of them men blew the sheeps up like a balloon. This loosened the skin for the animal and would make it easier for them to take it off. So they hung the sheep up by its back legs and all the blood started to drain out of it. They then took the skin of and then cut into the insides of the sheep. Then they took apart the insides of the sheep. They took out the outer membrane covering first and then the stomach, intestines, liver, lungs, kidneys, everything that we would be eating later for lunch!!

Then once the first sheep was all chopped up, the second sheep was brought in. This sheep went through the same process. This one twitched a lot more then the first one while it was dying. That was kinda weird! Then once it was dead they hung it up and started taking it apart. The whole morning was spent killing and cutting up the sheep. I watched every minute of it and took over 200 pictures and about 40 minutes of video. Its pretty cool!!

Then at about 2 we had lunch. Fatima had boiled the kidneys, liver, lungs, and heart. Then Fatiha took the cooked meat and cut it up into cube pieces and wrapped the piece with the dried membrane cover from the sheep and put it on skewers. Once she had made 10 skewers she put them on top of a hot coals in a little grill that they had in the middle of the courtyard. We ate cooked insides of a sheep with bread and spices (i used A LOT of spices) and of course we drank tea as well as fanta.

After that i was full, but the food was not done. The second coarse came next. I was then presented a plate of cooked small intestines. Everyone looked to see what my first reaction was going to be and i was definetly surprised. Then Fatiha ate a piece and said it was good. Fatima said i didnt have to try it if i didn't want to, but I'll try anything once. So i took a small piece, about an inch long, dunked it in spices and ate it. It was kinda chewy, but not bad. I tried it a second time and then decided that was enough. I kinda made a funny face when i ate the pieces and everyone laughed. So in about an hours time I had eaten the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and small intestines of a sheep. WOW

Then later that night for dinner we had more sheep! This time we had steamed ribs and more cubed pieces of meat on a skewer!! That has been how all the meals in the last week have been. Every lunch and dinner for the last 5 days has been sheep. I have now eaten sheep tongue, head, hooves, ribs, heart, liver, kidney, lungs, intestines, and stomach. They were all a little weird, the texture of some of the pieces is a little odd, but i tried everything! You would think that by now we would have eaten it all, but the freezer is still filled with meat! So it looks like the rest of the weeks lunches and dinners are going to be no surprise!

Then yesterday i got to witness another tradition that goes with this holiday. We were sitting in the salon eating lunch, it was sheep, and we heard music in the street. We jumped up and ran to the roof and i quickly grabbed my camera on the way up. From the roof we could see people walking by the house. Some of the men were wearing home made masks and one of the men was wearing sheep skins. He was completely covered in sheep skins. This guys is called the Bouchaloud. He dresses up in the skins and goes around to all the houses collecting money and sugar. I started to take pictures of them from the roof and they spotted me. They came over and started to talk to my host sister Khadija and asked if i wanted a picture with them. She said yeah so they came around to the front of the house. I had to grab 5 durhams to give them and then went to the front door. The guy in all the skins was kinda scary, but they all were very nice. They welcomed me to Morocco and shook my hand. Then we all posed for a picture. It is definetely a funny picture!! Then they turned and left and continued on their way through town collecting money.

The whole holiday was fun and helped to make me feel better about not being home for Thanksgiving with my family. Im looking forward to next year already!!