Today marks the beginning of a Muslim holiday. This is in celebration of the time that Abraham very nearly sacrificed one of his sons. The question of which son is still up in the air, for as all good Christians know, the Bible says he almost sacrificed Isaac, but all good Muslims know that the Koran says he almost sacrificed Ishmael. But, I digress.
The point of the holiday is basically remembrance of this time and Abraham’s devotion to God. There is, at this very moment, a live ram in the yard. He has no idea that tomorrow, he is going to be killed. Poor guy. I feel kinda bad for him, but he also is pretty ugly, stubborn, and seemingly very stupid, so maybe he had it coming.
My father-in-law also arrived today. He speaks English pretty decently and is very nice so far, but my crippling shyness has completely taken me over in this house, so unfortunately for him, he’s not going to hear much of my rapier wit. Another aspect of this holiday is that you give gifts to each other. I was totally unprepared for this situation, as Zack already handed out presents all willy-nilly. Thus far, I have received two tennis bracelets, one gold squares with small diamonds between each square, and another beautiful gold and white gold circles, alternating in size. Dad also gave me a small coin purse, hand made in Africa. It greatly resembles the baskets the Chitimacha Indians weave. There’s also a key chain, carved from a very expensive type of wood from Africa, and a Rolex. Yeah, a Rolex. What? Holy Cow. The generosity here is overwhelming, seriously. (On a side note, Zack confiscated the Rolex since it was, after all, a man's watch.)
Tomorrow, the sheep will be butchered in the yard, probably with the machetes that Dad brought back from Africa today. (I could be wrong here, but it seems pretty handy when you’re trying to kill a full-grown animal). The meat is given away, to the poor. As there’s only one farm animal in the yard at the moment, I have to assume that we’re not actually going to eat any of this meat, which is a relief to me. I just don’t think I could eat it, seeing it alive and all; or maybe I could, because it’s actually such an ugly, gross animal, that I don’t really feel any fondness for it at the moment. (Another side note: We actually did eat this sheep, and he actually was quite disgusting. Portions of him were also later turned into sheep jerky, which was also not good.) Also, this holiday is really disrupting getting the internet. Everything will be closed for an entire week for this. EVERYTHING. That would so not fly in the states, but I think we’ve pretty firmly established that we’re not in Kansas anymore.
Let’s see, what else is there to tell? Oh, Arabic tv. TV here is a satellite that receives stations from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The main channel we have watched so far is an Arabic channel called MBC. MBC is kind of a mix of programming. They have multiple channels, and there’s programming from all over the world. Some of the shows are dubbed in Arabic and some are just closed captioning. The family seems to keep it on this channel most of the time for me, because it has a lot of shows on in English. There’s pretty current movies, game shows and day time talk shows. For instance, we just finished watched Oprah at 7 o’clock at night. I’ve never really like Oprah, so I wasn’t too into it. The products that are advertised on TV are really a hodge-podge of things. There’s a brand of diapers (#1 in Japan!) that is pretty popular. There’s American products and European products, all advertised in their native tongue. There’s some kind of beauty stuff called “Amlay”. (Almay?) And I even got to see a commercial from India for that skin-lightning cream that Michael Jackson possibly OD’ed on.
Today, Zack’s dad made him get me out of the house. (The man is good! He told Zack I was obviously bored and to take me somewhere!) We were going to go into Tripoli, but traffic was pure insanity, thanks to the holiday. Instead, we drove around the neighborhood. There’s a huge, gorgeous country-club type thing for diplomats. It’s fenced in, so you really can’t see a thing, so I’m guessing it’s gorgeous, judging by the fence. Across the street from this is Zack’s uncle’s farm, where he spent a lot of time growing up. Zack can’t believe how much the neighborhood has changed. When he was here last, there were no other houses in the area. Now, there’s houses going up everywhere, and small markets popping up like weeds. Now look at it:
Where we are is called Ain Zara (I am totally guessing on the spelling, so don’t quote me). It used to be farmland outside of Tripoli, very quiet and cheap land. Now, Tripoli is growing because of immigration from Africa, and many of the upper class and middle class families are moving out of the city for a slower pace. Unfortunately, so many of them are moving out to “the country” that the country is practically a city itself now. Zack really doesn’t recognize much, because the last time he was here, everything besides his family’s house was farmland. I’ll have to post some pictures of the house, and some of my other favorite houses in the area, because it truly is gorgeous. The color schemes leave a bit to be desired for me, but I’ve already stated that the people here really, really love bright, flashy things. We had a special meal today for the beginning of the holiday. I have no idea what it was, but it did include lamb meat, which is pretty darn good. (A third side note: No, no it's really not good. Lamb meat is HORRIBLE. Never again!) I also noticed a chunk of meat in a butcher shop so large, it would feed half of Mexico for a week. Turns out, it’s the hindquarter of a camel. I’m down for tasting it, but good God, that thing is huge! Anyway, that’s pretty much all that’s happening now. Unfortunately, you won’t see these posts for a week or so, but I promise to upload them as soon as humanly possible. I’ll probably write another post tomorrow, after I’ve seen the gruesome death of a sacrificial animal. Love to all!
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