Eid Holiday

I went over to one of my Egyptian team member's house for the Eid Holiday. Brief history: Eid is to celebrate the story of Ismail and Abraham when Allah called Abraham to sacrifice his son, Ismail, but when he went to kill Ismail, the knife would not break his son's skin. (Hmmm, does this story sound vaguely familiar to anyone?) Then Abraham hears Allah's voice to sacrifice a ram or sheep or some animal in place of his son. Ok, so the religious tradition is to eat meet all day for this Eid feast. The locals get freshly butchered cow, goat, sheep in the morning, give a third the poor, a third to his relatives, and keeps a third for his own family. So, anyways, on the way over to my coworker's home, we past all the butcher "shops", there are pictures to accompanying this sight, but it is not for the weak of heart - very bloody and gruesome (i almost vommitted myself). I literally walked through streets filled with animal blood, there were piles of sheep skins and all sorts of animal parts hanging and being butchered - again, i almost lost it walking thru it all and the smell is not somethin you can miss either. OK, so moving right along to the feast... i know, i kinda didn't make a good set up for the feasting part, BUT! it was sooooooooooooo frikin good! if you've ever eaten at Moby Dick's or one of those places, it was like that only home cooked and so much better! It was great! btw, my coworker is the only in her family with red hair. You'll see her entire family, she has three brothers, one of which is married with an 11 month baby girl. My camera died, so i couldn't take as many pics as i wanted to...sorry. Enjoy!

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Get your own

here's the link to the butchering pics. copy and paste. not for the weak. http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.kimj/TheAftermathNotForTheWeak?authkey=obZrDgXXNMM

Just like home...kinda

my version of sang chu sam and daeng jang jigkeh with some ban chanz made in my lil' hotel kitchenette. gotta improvise sometimes. produce here, especially cucumbers, lettuce, tomotos, kiwi, pomegranent, mangos is really really FRESH.

To my peeps...

whoa! the lasttime i posted anything was Nov. 17th - my bad. But, i'm back by popular demand...can't upset the fans y'know how crazy they can get... :P
let's see, let's see...where to begin...so i found a small cell group (just to clarify, "cell" in this context refers to a religious gathering to study the Bible, nothing to do with public enemy #1, so calm down), about 5 ppl around my age: two Americans: a guy and gal, a Dutch gal, two Egyptians: a guy and gal, the Egyptian guy is Muslim...which adds a very welcomed and intriguing twist to the whole group dynamic..it's really interesting the questions he asks, makes you really dig deep into what religion, Christianity, Islam all that *ish is about...one day i'll write a book, but for now...this blog will do. it's funny, this place...Egypt...let me explain...after church in Maadi on Friday, i hung out in a coffee shop working; i had an evening engagement in Maadi and decided to spend the day there (vs. going back and forth from hotel to Maadi). So, anyways, my experience at the coffee shop was not unexpectedly very unsatisfying. the customer service in Egypt is either in your face, all up in your grill or nonexistent. For instance, in restaurants they will come by and clear your half drunken beverage, half eaten entree, even when you're not finished...very annoying. However, at this particular coffee shop, this was not the case, much rather the exact opposite. I ordered a salad and a sparkling water. (i know very bougie, but i'm gaining weight like fat Albert in a wet sweatsuit.) the salad came out after about one hour, which required multiple inquiries to the waiter "is my order coming out?" finally my salad arrives sans my water. my beverage came after the fact about the time i was taking my last bite of salad that was btw drown in dressing. Ok, Khalas! whatever. the experience just progressively worsened by the incessant smoking all around me which formed a visible smog of cigarette smoke looming right at nose and mouth level. (cough, cough....i admit at one point i too wanted a db.) then there was the couple, where the guy kept trying to force the girl to kiss him and pushing the back of her head towards him. that was kinda disturbing. then i attempted to order a latte, again, this turned out to be an hour and a half event. again, khalas! whatever. then they totally f***d up my check, so i had explain why it was wrong; this was another 20 minutes. AH!!! Seriously, i could feel myself turning into Super B-ahtch! BUT, the Spirit told me to stop getting my panties all up in a bunch. Anyways, so i left, went to my evening engagement in Maadi. Afterwards, got in a taxi around 10:30PM. here's the kicker, in the taxi ride home i thought of my return home to the States and i found myself actually missing Egypt...a lot! I even entertained the idea of extending my work here - I know it's crazy talk! anyways, needless to say, i like it here. but of course i miss you guys. Ok, sorry no pics this time, seriously, i think i look a lil' shi*tier everyday....i just blame it on the pollution. luv & miss...