Day 17
Touda was away so we wandered through the souk and towards the house to get survey supplies. Someone has fallen ill in her family so she has to help them. However with a few exception, it seems that most people are willing to speak with us if we mention her since she is an elected representative for Ait M’hamed. After a brief interview with Hadija the bread maker family who share a household with Fatima, we headed back to the souk to find some animals. Starting with the butcher hall, which was really hard to walk through, no crying animals as they are all killed the day before or early in the morning before market, but the smells and sights were emotionally and physically intense. The heads are always left on the animal carcasses while hanging on meat hooks from the beams and it seems to be mostly goats being killed an sold as their heads with fearful still eyes were what I stared at and were strewn over the floor. After asking a few butcher outside about the diet and meat quality of livestock, we headed to see the live ones. Sheep are the prerogative this time of year as everyone who can afford and had fodder resources to feed are prepping and fattening young males for slaughter at laid ikber (an Islamic holiday two months after Ramadan involving animal sacrifice- typically a male sheep- ram). Later we were also able to see the store rooms and main vendors for bought feed- elemen, schmunder, alim, and timzine. Apparently the same timzine that is used by people for flour is also given as feed. No distinctions in grades between human food and non-human animal feed. Although given that some of the animals graze in dumping zones and many are given food and market scraps, this is only really relevant to bought feed.
Later Abdellatif helped me to purchase some Nigella seed (aka, black seed or black cumin) which I have been on the lookout for- it’s the miracle seed mentioned in the Quran as a powerful medical seed, and used in some traditional medicine here.
Found a dozing cat by Fatima’s house on the walk back, which I tried to take a photo of and clumsily startled it. When it calmed down and started to lick itself it revealed a horrific neck gash- part of its throat was missing! I wonder if that was what the terrible skirmish was last night. It’s really sad to see the state of many of these animals. Some of the dogs have horrible bald wound patches. Even the other day we observed a woman grazing and one of the sheep’s hind quarters and tail were black from mud and faecal build up. But at least most of the animals are in better condition and have better feed options than those in the cities. And the cats and dogs have more space, though apparently are no safer from each other.