Stuffed lamb

I'm the first to admit that I'm woefully ignorant of Arabic culture. This blog is like a 'Kuwait for Dummies' because I deal with people as I find them, I tell it as I see it, I haven't read the handbook. Actually I find that slightly insulting - that you can know all about a country and it's people from reading a 'guide' book. Imagine dealing with a foreigner in your country who thinks they know all about you from a book! It's also very difficult to find the right moment to ask someone 'listen, I've heard this, is it true?' I prefer to look for similarities rather than differences anyway!

So to the point, it's Eid this week. Eid is to sheep what Thanksgiving and Christmas is to turkeys. A sheep is slaughtered to celebrate the festival with family and friends. It's just that with all the little chicken and sheep pens outside almost every house, I thought they would slaughter a sheep from the backyard. I looked out the window yesterday to see a truck load of sheep being delivered! Well, I never read about that in any book. But this morning, the truck came to our house! Oh no! I'm really squeamish and a couple of years ago one was obviously slaughtered in the back garden but I had assumed it was a neighbour's. Last year one was hung from a bar from a car port just across the road. So I decided I'm not going out today! But there was Ginger looking hungry so I popped down to feed her. (Actually, she just looked sweet but that will do!) The driver was downstairs so I asked him about this -











The sheep were delivered and 2 were stuffed into the boot/trunk of this car parked outside our gate. (This was about half an hour before). He said oh no, they are not there now, there were 3 of them delivered and they are just being 'cut' now in the back garden. Oh gawd! What a hypocrite I am because I eat meat. It's just that being brought up in the West we don't have to think about this as we browse the meat counters. Still, there are plenty of supermarkets here so the ritual itself must be an important factor.

Whilst this is a part of Arabic culture, what I witnessed a few days ago by the bin is not. I'm told I was too cryptic so the creatures I referred to were chickens. With the very real threat of bird flu, this incident got me thinking about how one country's rules and regulations can affect us all.