Last Friday was the Muslim holiday Mawlid. The day celebrates the birth of the Prophet Muhammed in 570 CE in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. For the holiday in Algeria, children celebrate with fire crackers, sparklers and drumming. We invited a group of boys in our neighborhood to come over and rock out with their drums. The small drums you see in the video are made out of a clay base and sheep or camel skin. When the skin gets cold the sound of the drum weakens so every so often the drum must be loosened

The town of Baider sits high above the Mediterranean Sea near the Moroccan border. On some roads you can look and see Moroccans driving on their side of the Atlas mountain range. The people from Baider like to tell the legend of how the first mosque in their town was built. A wise man used to sit on the edge of the sea near the high cliffs. One day a ship from another country (somewhere in the Mediterranean no one seems to know what country they were from) landed on the shore. The sailors were

This week we visited the small town of Cap Blanc (find it on google maps here).  When the French governed Algeria the area was divided into two major farms. One of these was called “La Ferme Saint Marie” which you can see still painted on the side of a building.

We drove into the town down a steep hill that goes from the mountain straight into the sea and passed by an old woman waiting on the curb for the bus. She is dressed in the traditional white of Algerian elders from this region.

Far western and far eastern Algeria hold ruins of the ancient Numidian civilization.

The word Numidia supposedly comes from the Greek word for nomad. Some sources say that the English word nomad comes from the word Numidia. The Numidians have Berber roots. Many numidians were nomadic in Algeria but by the 3^rd century BCE (before our common era) many had settled in the northern most part of Algeria.

Many Algerians of Berber origin are very proud of their Numidian ancestors and often name

Algerians greet each other in many different ways and it changes depending on the age and gender of the person you encounter. In this week’s podcast you can hear the most common greetings. Algerians say that when greeted by someone you should always say something even nicer than what they said to you. In the podcast you will hear:

-Salam Alakieum

Peace be upon you

-Wa alakeium salam wa rahma-too allahee tana wa barkatooh

And may peace be upon you as well as the charity and bounty of