Aid el Kabir and the Bastard Children

I’m taking a mid-day break in my humble abode, glancing around at my artwork on the walls. I’m glad to be back, even though I was very insecure about it. Yesterday was Aid el Kabir, the Moroccan holiday when each family slaughters a sheep and eats meat for three days straight. Since they all think I’m vegetarian, they think I’m starving. I walked into the kitchen yesterday and the sheikh's wife was fixing lunch. I looked in the pot and saw a jaw bone with teeth. 

It was interesting to watch them pull the fur and skin off the carcass in one long piece, not to mention when they blew through the sheep’s asshole to clean it out and flush it with water. I walked around the village greeting men with blood-splattered noses and cheeks, in between the butcher knife hacking. This holiday commemorates the story from the Old Testament when Abraham was going to sacrifice his son, to prove his faith in God. God sent a sheep instead, stuck in a fence, at the last moment.

This holiday reminds me of Thanksgiving. It’s a time of reunion and feast, a time of family. The men working abroad have come home, as well as students in college. Many people marry around this time. Next week are all the village weddings. I went to a circumcision this morning. It’s a big deal here. They do it when the boy is about four. The little boy looked sad in his mother’s lap with his crown on his head. His clothes were stark white against the worn rug and dirt floor. 

American, my neighbor, has got big problems. His oldest daughter is pregnant without a husband. The police came to warn him not to do anything, like murder. I think she might have been sleeping with some of them.

R’s sister was seen at some boy’s house. Her brother beat the shit out of her and she moved out. She’s still in the village somewhere. R said he pulled a knife on her.

Some man saw me and R on our bikes, heading off into the mountains. He thought I was a boy and started a rumor that R was off with a man. When she found out she caused an enormous scene, screaming and thrashing her arms about.