travelers in the night

Monday just after midnight, we were sleeping with our road-facing windows open, and were slowly awakened by an odd mixture of sounds. Actually it was the lack of certain sounds that first seemed odd - we live on the busiest street in a large city that prides itself on being more modern than the rest of the country, and the noise of cars traveling down that street never seems to pause. But the traffic noise died down, replaced by odd whistles, hoops and hollers, accompanied by the what may have been the sound of a stealthy approaching army...



While an odd sight to us, this was at least a more conventional way to transport sheep. In the past we have seen live sheep transported on the backs of motorcycles, stuffed into backseats and trunks of compact cars, and flopping around helplessly on horseback.

There were at least 3 groups this size or bigger that walked past our place in a 15 minute period that night. This is certainly all in preparation for Ramadan, the month of fasting by day and feasting by night that began Monday morning, in which ironically more food is consumed than any other month of the year