After everyone is fed and settled with activities and while Emma is home getting ready for her day out, I run up to the Shuk for a few items. Bread, vegetables and fruit are fresh, ripe and ready to eat when you purchase them and they don't hold up for more than a day or two, so you shop frequently. I purchase some fresh pita bread and some version of Tide laundry detergent. Kids want a home day so good time to catch up on laundry. Grateful to have washer and dryer. Most everyone hangs their laundry out to dry. Don't know if that is to save electricity, if most don't have dryer or if they don't want to heat up their house.
Love wandering through the Shuk on my own. It feels more like home now and its just fascinating to watch, smell and be in. Vendors call out the price of their goods, every stahl smells so differently. I even compare prices of grapes today. Our favorite watermelon stand hasn't gotten his delivery today or something because he is just sitting there with nothing to sell. I go to our favorite baker - 6sh for 6 pitas. I pop into a little convenience store for my detergent and bag of milk. Then feeling almost like I could be starring in a foreign film, I make my way over for a treat of iced coffee - much like a frap. I get really bold and pick out some bourekas for the kids and I to try. Little pastries with different savory fillings. I sip on my drink and wander home, bags hanging from my arms.
I arrive back at home to find one of our neighbors having her apartment cleaned, water pouring down the steps as I walk up. They wring out wet, dirty towels used in cleaning directly onto the floor outside their front door. You can tell who has recently cleaned or mop by the trail of water coming from their apartment.
Home again - my movie debut cut short - kids are ready again for attention again. Picturesque neighborhood and perfect outing.
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| Circular one pizza flavored with green olives. Circular one cheese - ricotta? Third, mostly munched on one spinach with some sort of salty, light cheese. Yummo to all 3 - not a place for paleo. |
did you happen to know that hanging out the laundry in some other cultures was often a way for women to greet each other in the morning and spend a little time together in converstaion. Once in Guatamala some ladies in a community for orphans were offered dryers if they wanted but they did not because they wanted to have their time together hanging out the family laundry.They felt it would break up thier time together...I found that so sweet and interesting because of course I would have said bring on the dryer!! Your post did sound like the beginning of a Fellini movie...
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are settling in nicely and feeling more confident in yourself!
ReplyDeleteThe picture you painted reminds me of my mother talking about her experiences living in all the different countries because my dad was in the military for so many years. There's a sort of sadness in her when she talks about it sometimes. Your post is yet another reminder to me we are all pilgrims/travelers in kingdom mode. (1chron. 29:15 we are strangers before You, and sojourners, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope or expectation of remaining.) We're all strange people passing through a strange land. Thanks so much for posting your heart. You know it occurs to me Ryan could memorize Exodus 22:21 for the lady that yells,of course he would need to learn it in Hebrew. :)
ReplyDeleteCathi,
ReplyDeleteYou do write so beautifully. Thank you so much for sharing with us. I love that food is not so preserved, and that you have to go more frequently for smaller portions. It seems a better reminder of our need to thank God daily for our bread. doesn't it? It also reminds me of my grandmother who got up every morning, put on her gloves and hat, and drove one block to main street to get the mail and buy what would be cooked at the noon meal. She knew the butcher; she knew the grocer; she knew the postman or woman; she knew all she would bump into on the way. Such a social outing! I love that you are beginning to have certain venders that are becoming, maybe not friends, but a familiar part of the day - that you are developing a "what normal life feels like." God bless you.