Twas the Night Before Eid..
..And Ramallah was teeming with hundreds of thousands of people. There was no room to put one's foot. The people were like termites all scurrying around aimlessly, in some places congregating like there was no tomorrow. Stores stayed open well after midnight with people still buying clothes at rip off prices, and oh my we enjoyed it all thoroughly. Gets you in the mood for Eid, you see. Balloons for the kids were at every corner, there was a belly dancing bear shaking its furry butt to Najwa Karam, and cat calls and perverts adorned the manara. Note about the perverts: They claim that you are the most beautiful face they have ever seen, but they don't say mashallah and so you get hit with the evil eye and go tripping over a huge slab of rock in the middle of the street. Ho hum.
It was a good day for street vendors too.
The day of Eid is spent either waking up very early to pray and then visit relatives or sleeping in until the early afternoon. Prayers were held at Old Man Abbas's headquarters, the Muqta'ah so of course we didn't go. The takbeerat weren't even heard throughout the entire day, and the reason for that lies in Salam Fayyad's magnanimity and utmost respect to the nearby Israeli settlements. See, he doesn't want to..BOTHER the settlers with the adhan. Friggin zionut. Right, so before we launch into our customary negativity, we wish you all a very happy Eid!
It was nice reading this now that I am away from the country. I have been missing the Takbeer and to know that you guys did not even hear it makes me sad!
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