MORE MEAT THAN YOU CAN EAT!! This is a picture of the rear of my counterpart's house and the men going to work after the...sacrifice. The sheep are quickly skinned and cleaned; here are the carcasses that my counterpart and her two married sons' families will enjoy. I was invited over to observe and participate. I chose to sit inside and work my sudoku puzzle rather than see the throats being slit, but did have several kabobs. The meat is marinated and cooked, then wrapped with fat and grilled over charcoal. Quite tasty. It was kind of funny, though, as the little camp-size charcoaler was in that same room (in photo) right off the kitchen and you could hardly breathe or see for smoke!

They eat lots of bread and meat for several days. I'd hazard a guess that they eat more meat in three days than they usually eat in three months. Seriously! The sheep are more expensive than usual this year...I think about 3500-4000 Dhs. I don't know what the average salary is around here, but am pretty sure very few families makes that much a month. Not much of the animal goes to waste. Stomach lining, intestine casing...the works. Before I went over to their house, a man came to my door with a tray laden with food. It was my neighbor next door who I never see (I don't think she leaves the house; he is a high school teacher) giving me this gift for their special holiday. I was very touched. About the time I am in the throes of a good pity party for myself, something like this happens. You see, that's the kind of thing that makes it worthwhile staying.

For some reason I am able to blog from my house. One just never knows! The weather has been kind of crummy. Following the high winds, we got cloudy overcast weather, rained a bit last night and had a downpour late afternoon. I'm glad I have company coming tomorrow and more on Monday to cheer up the place for Christmas.

Have been enjoying playing Scrabble online with people all over the world. And watching some good movies. But I will be ready to get back into a routine after the first of the year. My program manager in Rabat has left the Peace Corps so my sector is in hopes we will soon get a good replacement to enable us to do better work.

Again, Merry Christmas. Do be grateful that you can easily attend a church of your choice, if that is your wish, and to spend the holidays in comfort and hopefully, with those you love. Those are really big privileges.