Selamat Hari Raya!

Puuh...Eid in a Malaysian-Egyptian style is so cool. They bought like 50+ animals including camels,goats and cows to sembelih:D. We woke up really early for the Eid Prayer. The Malaysians prepared an outside mosque which was the whole footsal field and they even put up a sort of camp above. We were one of the 1st to Takbir. The Salat was nice and afterwards the Imam gave a few words about the Eid and why we sacrifice the animals. All this in super-cold weather.

There was a program set for us: first the sacrifice, then the cleaning and cooking of the sacrifices, then we eat! During the sacrificial part, I was in charge of taking the pictures, since my brother, who usually takes the pictures was afraid of blood and so's my dad. The 1st sacrifice was a cow, and ALOT of people were there to watch!

The cow's feet were tied up and then they tripped him so that his neck was showing. Then the man with the knife came. I had to stand on tiptoes just to see the cow above the heads of 20 people infront of me. Then people started to back away, because they were tryin to tip the cow over, to reveal its throat. They put a rope underneath the cow then one the count of three they dragged it back to make it fall...it wasn't enough; the cow was sturdy, it didn't want to fall at all, kinda reminds me of the pyramids abit. Eventually it fell, but it took more than ropes to do the job; all the surrounding people started to come forward and push it down sideways. Anyways, after that whole deal, people started reciting Allah hu Akbar. It was time. We could all see that the cow was scared, it was still trying to fight, but as most people know...its really hard for a cow to get back up after its tipped over. Then, a splash of blood, a blur of people's back, and i saw the cow's dieing moments...

The cow was a huge deal. Many people came to watch, which was contrasted by the goats; a lot less people came to watch and the people who were sacrificing them didn't take long. I think when I got at the scene, 2 were already sacrificed and after close to 5 mins another 4 or so was. All that was done was that the man took the goat by the legs, said Allah hu Akbar, and cut its throat. After that he went to fetch another...then another...then another. It was all really quick.

The goats and cows sacrificial moments were intriguing and a real slap in the face to wake you up, but the main event was camel. There were about 6 of them, all seemingly peaceful on their corner of their complex. Even before the cows were sacrificed, people had started to gather around the camel so i worried that i wouldn't make it in time. But it seemed that the people were just playing around with the camels, riding them, giving them food and taking pictures wit them. So I was relieved when i got the 1st class spot to watch the 1st of the camels to be sacrificed. It was utterly unprecedented(new). 1st, the camel's head was tied up to a pole that was stuck between 2 trees to expose its neck joint that was connected to its head. Then the owner of the camel was told to help out by keeping the camel in place. Finally, the man with the knife came, already covered in blood. By this time, not only was the small corner crowded, but nearly every space there was left on the complex that was available to see the camel! People even bothered to go back up their rooms and look out the window. Allah hu Akbar was recited, and the man placed the knife underneath the head, and started cutting. At first, it appeared to have no effect on the neck, then suddenly, a fountain of blood spurted out, an angry howl from the camel was heard and soon enough, the camel started a blind rage. Somehow or rather, I escaped with only my shoes getting specks of blood on them.Other people ran away as fast as they could when the nearly headless camel spurt blood in their direction. Not long after, the camel's body fell, and the sacrifice was complete.

When it was time for the second camel, another one of the camels tried to run away. It's front feet were tied up so it would be more accurate to say crawling away. It ended up still tied to the tree and facing the camel in-wait to be sacrificed. A nearby man told me that it wanted to "sokong member dia".

This camel wasn't tied up. There were loads more peope by now, and the neck-cutting part was swift. It was the aftermath that took a dreadfully long time. The camel started to furiously kick out with it's tied up legs and swayed from position to position in a hysteric attempt to escape. This was all with it's head nearly chopped off. 5 men rushed forward and pushed it down to its side, not a simple task. It was, for me, a completely new and thrilling experience to see a camel being sacrificed for eid, rather than a cow or goat, and I greatly appreciate the fact i got the chance to see it in the 1st place. Of course, the experience was shared with hundreds of other people including the curious Egyptians who came to watch.

After all that, I went back to my room, to relax a bit. I thought that was enough sacrifices for me to watch happen for a day. So I slowly uploaded all the pictures, the videos, and took my time watching all of it. When my mom asked me to go out again, it was time for the cleaning of the carcasses.

The 1st carcass I noticed were the sheeps and goats, as they were hung onto a metal pole for the skinning. By now, all of them were headless. I watched as they cut through the muscles tissues, the skin, and bones of the bodies, then they pulled out all of the organs, and for the 1st time ever, I saw a goats insides: the round, large stomach; the long, thin intestines; the small, strange liver. All of it. After the cleaning of the goats, I went to watch the cleaning of the cows.

This was a lot more time consuming, as the cow had a larger body and so more fur, more muscles and more fat to get through. When I arrived, they had already took out the fun and were waiting for a big enough knife to slice through the skin. The knife came after 3 minutes of waiting and if the cow had seen the knife, he would have ran all the way to the pyramids. It was a titanic knife! The knife went through the body as easily as it would have done silk. Now, for the pulling out of the insides. The contrasts of goat's insides and cow's inside were very pronounced. These were huge. The stomach itself would have fit half of Muhaimin! The intestines were boundless! It seemed like if i stretched it (which hopefully one day i will) it would be able to reach across my whole room and out the door! But the insides were stuck to the body, so they had to shop off the link. However, due to the massive bones of the cow, and the position it was in, it was obvious they would be able to. So, they hacked the bones. Simple answer. Bone in the way, take it out. Afterwards, I saw the muscles of the cow still moving...

The camel's cleaning apparently took a lot of people and time. Just the skinning itself took 3 people per camel. I didn't stick around for the gutting... I just didn't feel like watching. However, I did notice a camel head lying around on the floor. I have a picture of it...I will upload the pictures at a later time.

After all that frenzy, my dad decided to call Malaysia, and the cheapest way to that apparently was the internet cafe! I don't know if that is true or not but the internet does cost ONE Jenih per hour! So we went there for the next 3 hours. Me playing a game and chatting to friends, Saif trying to figure out how to use the tele-pc, Muhaimin just playing a game and my parents were just surfing the net and looking for people to call. After the connection to Malaysia was made, we called my grandmas and wished them a happy eid. The annoying thing was that it delayed 5 seconds. If I said something in my end, the person on d other end will hear it 5 seconds late. So it was a rather confused conversation.

Selamat Hari Raya Maaf Zahir Batin kepada semua orang, kawan-kawan dan keluarga tercampur.