Fox hunting

Yesterday was a typical Belgian weather day. Overcast with some showers. Such a day, however, is a guarantee for 3 or 4 days of excellent weather.

While enjoying the sun on the roof, I realized that another week has passed. Time to update my blog.

The roof is now surrounded by a 1 meter high cement brick wall. It takes away the view while sitting on the floor, but it provides a lot of privacy and protection from the wind which changed direction. A sign that winter is approaching.

The last day of Ramadan was on Monday. Much to the surprise of many Syrians. Everybody expected it to end on Sunday. Many shopkeepers did not open on Monday and the children were disappointed because they had to wait another day to put on their newly bought cloths and postpone the visits to family where sweets and loose change was waiting for them.

Eid-el-Fitr (Holiday of the Breakfast) is translated in Dutch to “Suikerfeest”. In every house a big dish full of plates with cookies, chocolates, etc... is served in the best room of the house that has been cleaned thoroughly for the occasion. The Eid lasts 3 days. This allows time for family to visit each other, as some are living far away.

On the last day of Ramadan, the sky was equally blue and sunny as today. A good day to go collecting the last grapes and zbieb. When we got ready to leave, Mohamed took his gun which I found to be a strange item to go collecting fruits. He said it to be a good day to go and have a walk in the fields, so I put on my walking shoes.

We ended up fox hunting for hours. There are many foxes in this region. We spotted one 2 times. The first shot took me by surprise. I was too much concentrating on walking through the ploughed fields. Did see the fox running away. He was probably hunting the large rabbit that we noticed running away at the same time. So, on we went in search of another one.

About an hour later, a fox was peeping from behind a rock at about 50 meters. Another shot was fired. Again the fox escaped.

As we were near a house and its owner came to us complaining that a bullet hit its wall, we abandoned the hunting and left it for another day. And honestly, we were getting tired.

Fox meat is a delicacy. Dzjidde had been asking for it. It was him who told his son to go and shoot a fox, as he was craving for some fox meat. He will have to wait and me too. I never tasted it before.

New attempts will be made in the near future, I am told. We will also go hunting for rabbits and partridges.

The day was not without success, though. I’ve got a few kilos of zbieb for the winter.