EID , My Knight in a LandRover, Camels, and Goats

Well, another week has passed in the UAE and as usual it was anything but boring.  Sunday, we began a short week of school (Sun-Wed.) and will have long weekend Thurs-Sunday and return to school on Monday.  EID is an Islam holiday celebrated here this week.  It is a time when locals and Muslims give thanks for their blessings and share with those who are less fortunate.  Goat is the meat of choice for celebrations and entire families get together for big meals.  Reminds me of Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one...there's lots of gift giving.  Sunday and Monday went by and we used this as a review weeks for all letters, sounds, numbers, English words, and patterns we've taught.  On Tuesday morning, something weird happened....I have 24 students and only 6 showed up.  Thought it was a fluke, but all the other KG teachers only had 5-7 students each.  I asked why and the teachers said that some families had already left for relatives homes and wouldn't be back the rest of the week.  I had the best time.  One on one review and teaching was great....and yes, we played some fun games....we laughed, giggled, and got to know each other better.  Well, Wednesday rolled around and there were 3 students who came to school in the entire building.  Principal called parents and sent them home.  We stayed and worked in our rooms for a bit and my principal let us go home early for EID....I smiled all the way home! 

Slept in and then decided to go to the Camel Market to see if it was open today....I still haven't been up close and personal with a camel.  Took my trash out and noticed a LandRover following me.  Walked back across the street and waited for Andrea Brown to come and pick me up.  As she turned in and I got in the car, noticed the LandRover again.  When we headed out to the main road, he pulled up beside us and had the biggest grin on his face.  He was waving and obviously wanted to talk to me. 

 This was the view out of my window.....no worries Dan.  I'm a one man woman and he probably wanted me to be wife number four.....I'm always number one :).  I waved, told him to have a good day, and he kept following us.  He loved that I took his picture....Well after about 5-6 roundabouts, he went his way and we went ours.  Nice to know I still got it!  (well, the flirt was nice anyway!)

Well, when you turn the corner before the Camel Market, you smell money....camel poop.  Reminds me of the pig farm, but stronger.  There were cars, trucks, and all types of people lined up to enter the market to purchase goats for their EID celebrations.  The strangest thing I saw was a man carrying a sheep on his back.  He opened his trunk and stuck the goat in with there with the other two already in there. Guess he was using what he had, but it was weird.  As you drive through this area, there are people taking goats to cars and trucks.  Andrea and I hoped that some of the goats would make a run for it!  We shouted "Run, Forest, Run!"  and "Free Willy!"  in the safety of Andrea's car :). 

 

 

 

Every person we saw was buying not one or two, but three goats.  And I wondered why, so I did research?  Here's what I found:

 

On the first morning of Eid al-Adha, Muslims around the world attend the Eid prayer and a brief talk from the Imam at mosques. After that, every household sacrifices a goat, sheep, cow or camel, in much the same way that Abraham sacrificed a ram if he or she can possibly afford to do so.

The meat would then be divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others. The family eats one third, another third is given to relatives, friends or neighbors, and the last third is donated to the poor and needy. Thus, The Feast of the Sacrifice symbolizes obedience to Allah and its distribution to others is an expression of generosity and compassion.

 

So this explains the three goats....

 

Next, we decided to go an find camels.  From the smell, we could tell they were close.  :)

 

 

This camel wouldn't let me get very close before he/she started moving.  Couldn't believe how quickly he got up from this position.  The camel rangler came over quickly and shooed me out of the pen.  Well, let's just say...he smelled just like the camels :).  We made a quick retreat to the car and headed out for a day of roaming around getting lost.  Thanks, Andrea for having my back!

 

I'm going to have a lazy weekend and catch up on some tv shows been missing.  Have to be prepared for next week because Hanaa is going to have surgery on her hand Wednesday and will be out for two weeks.  She has to do it now or surgery will have to be more extensive by Christmas break. Hanaa told me that she knew the next two weeks would be hard.  I care about her as a person and know it has to happen now to ease her pain. Praying very hard for the Lord to help ease my worries and fears about being alone for that long.  My children are sweet and well behaved most of the time, but they act like I do in meetings where they are speaking Arabic...I only listen to the English part. I'm putting on my big girl panties and digging deep!