Eid el-Kebir

Eid el-Kebir (or Eid al-Adha) meaning "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Great Eid" is a holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to remember the willingness of Abraham, in obedience to God, to offer his son as a sacrifice. As God provided a replacement sacrifice, in place of Abraham's son, so the holiday is celebrated by the killing of a sheep.

Eid el Kebir will be celebrated tomorrow so for the past two weeks people have been buying their sheep for the ocassion. Just up the road from the gallery has been one location where you can purchase a sheep so everyday people come and scout out the sheep they would like to buy and then negotiate the price (200-350 Dinars is what I've been told).

I am privileged to be invited to share in this celebration with a family and look forward to learning more about this very special celebration and to witness it and take it in. So, check back next week for photos from the Eid el-Kebir.

Photo Walks

This week I had two great Photo Walks with some new friends who love photography and were excellent guides showing me the local sites. We had a great time exploring technical and artistic elements of photography and sharing ideas on perspective and ways of seeing....not just visually but also in how we "see" and "understand" our world.

Signs Are Up

Last week we put up some stylin' new signs for Espressioni. Permission from the municipality was given...so all we had do do was go out one night with a few tools in hand (one dull shovel, a hammer and a chisel, some sand/water/cement) and start digging, digging, digging, in the spot we picked mix some cement (my job!) and voila the next day you come back and up go the signs.

I sort of imagined a map outlining very specific coordinates for where the sign could go...nope, just start digging and there you go!

Beaux Arts

A couple weeks ago I was introduced to a professor of photography at the art institute in Sousse, Beaux Arts. Last week I was able to return to visit the class where the students were learning all about lighting. It was great to sit in on the class and learn some French photo-vocabulary. I also met a new friend who lives in Monastir and we had a great time photographing together on the weekend....images to come...