Where Do You Put Your Sheep?

Aaaah...the lovely smell of a barnyard. This is what I encountered when I walked into Linda Marie's apartment building last night and again as I walked out on my balcony this evening. The Muslim holiday of Eid el Kibir (also called Eid el Adha) is here. This holiday is celebrated to remember the sacrifice of a sheep instead of Abraham's son, Ishmael (Isaac). To celebrate, each family slaughters a sheep and uses it to make the food that they serve throughout the day. And by each family, I mean every married couple, which means that there are a large number of sheep hanging out in Casa these days.

The best way that I can describe the onset of sheep selling is to compare it to Christmas tree stands all of a sudden popping up all over the place back home in late November/early December. Every empty lot and garage pretty much gets turned into a spot to sell sheep for the holiday. Sheep are brought in from everywhere and prices depend on size and where the sheep came from.

Linda Marie last counted 16 sheep in the parking garage in her building, so we decided to go check it out. Here's what we encountered when we walked down the stairs into the parking garage. Note the sheep pen in the right hand corner of the photo below. (I am so glad I don't have a car here, so I don't have to park it by the sheep!)

Although the sides seemed very sturdy, the door to the sheep pen was a piece of wood tied to the sides - not the most secure spot. We were a little worried that the sheep might stampede and were unsure of what we would do if that happened.

Have you ever heard a sheep growl? These sheep were not making adorable Baa Baa noises. They were growling as they were not happy to be the focal point of all of my pictures.

Each sheep has markings to distinguish them, so that people will collect the right sheep when it comes time to slaughter them.

Tomorrow's the big day - my neighbor told me that her family is killing 3 sheep on our rooftop (one for her and her husband, and one each for her 2 daughters and their husbands). I'm sure they won't be the only ones. She told me that she'd come by and get me when they were planning on doing it, so that I could check it out. I'm hoping that she follows through so that I can satisfy my morbid curiosity about sheep slaughter. Hopefully, I'll have more to report tomorrow.