A Postmortem

Bonjour,

So, it's the day after Aid al Kabir, and there are still lots of sheep in Morocco.

For Moroccans, yesterday was a wonderful day with family and feasts, kind of like our Thanksgiving or Christmas. Today festivities continue, as it is Independence Day in Morocco.

As for us, we made it through yesterday without much trauma. We left Rabat in the morning, and while I looked away a few times to avoid seeing very fresh skins, roasting heads (in the medians or by the edge of the road) and bloody knives, we didn't see many dead animals. (And Bob didn't get invited to share in any fresh mutton).

The hardest part was when Rachida came to our house (she's house-sitting for us this weekend) with two young, scared animals -- a sheep and a goat -- in the trunk of a share taxi (old, white mercedes sedan). That made it really real.

Anna pet the shivering sheep, which was laying on top of the goat, before it was lifted out of the car. Tommy pretty much hid. Bob was unmoved.


The two animals came from the same farm and seemed to be friends, huddling together after the cords tying their legs were cut. They had a chance to frolic in our backyard and munch on some plants (fyi, they seemed happy to be free in our yard) before their ends. That made me glad.

It also made me glad when Rachida described the prayer said before the animals are killed, which she said (I think) really calms the animals. (She clearly felt bad for them, though. And we definitely did not stick around for what was coming next).

Instead, we headed south to Casablanca to hang out with some friends...

before stopping in Oualidia for another little vacation from our vacation (sabbatical). More on that soon.

A bientot,

Kim