May 9, 2003

Bethlehem Livestock Sale

[Bethlehem, West Bank] Every Saturday near my home in Bethlehem hundreds of local men from the community and surrounding villages gather for the weekly livestock sale. Since I grew up on a livestock farm -- and I miss it a lot when I'm away -- I like to visit the sale occasionally. It's strictly a "men only" event. I've never seen a woman, although I did once see a little girl selling a few goats. What do you need -- horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, birds? It's all here. (No camels. I don't know where the closest camel market is, but I've not seen many (any?) camels in Bethlehem. Once you start traveling through the wilderness toward the Dead Sea, then you see camels and Bedouin families.) I've never bought anything, since I don't have a place to put a goat. And maybe the goat would be uncomfortable with the dirtiness of my apartment. But I like the excitement of the sale, and I'm sure my dad would like it. I think the sales back home in Virginia are usually auctions. Place your bid and buy your cow. Here the men negotiate individually. Each guy brings his sheep and he sets the price. If you like the price, buy it. If you don't, go on to the next guy. There are plenty to choose from.

Hundreds of men attend the livestock sale every Saturday. I don't think ladies are prohibited, but none come.

Negotiations over a goat. The negotiations are in Jordanian dinars. Once a price is agreed upon, the buyer goes to the money guy. This man takes Israeli shekels and converts then to dinars for the transaction. Why in dinars? I have no idea. There is other business in Palestine that is handled in dinars. I think college tuition is calculated in dinars too. Here, Abu Shaddy buys a mother goat and her kid for about 200 dinars (around $300). We piled the goats in the car, went to his home, and drank fresh goat milk.

A goat. I think. Man, it's embarrassing for me, but sometimes from a distance I can't tell the difference between a sheep and a goat. They are about the same size and they are herded together in the same way. Don't tell my dad that I don't know the difference. He would say something like, "Dadburn it! Lived on a farm all his life, then went off to college, studied some dang computer-fool-thing and now the boy can't tell the difference between a sheep and a goat? Where did I go wrong?" I consider myself to be a bit of an outdoorsman, but nothing compared to my dad. I've seen him do some pretty amazing things. I've seen him one-handed grab a fish out of the river that runs behind our house. He held the flopping fish high so I could see it, and then he put it back into the water. Another time I saw him throw a hatchet and kill a goundhog that was running through an open field on our property. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't have seen it. Of course, I've also seen him drive over mom's barbeque grill that was sitting in front of his 4x4 Chevy pickup.