...I'll go on to the Souk for my weekly produce shopping. Last week I didn't need to buy eggs, so the egg lady was really sad, but she gave me a kiss on my hand and we managed to say "next week" (which is today)... so I'm going to buy some eggs, even though I have 8 left in the fridge.
Yesterday was so lovely... Miss Laurie and I went on a photo expedition, but I was soooo engrossed in looking out the window, I came home with 4 whole pictures on my camera. 3 of them were of THE pot hole I wrote about earlier. It's still there. You wouldn't believe how big it is. Yasser (Laurie and Brent's driver) drove us out to Al Atf, where one of Drew's jobsites is located. It's 1 hour and 20 minutes south of Alexandria by car (towards Cairo, but not on the same road) and is in a very poor farming village area. We watched women washing their breakfast dishes in the Nile, wading knee deep in the river to wash laundry, kids, themselves (while clothed), dishes and a few cows/buffalos. The housing was build right up against the road, mostly made of mud/wattle with hay piles on the roof (I wouldn't call it thatching, it wasn't that organized) Every woman/child in the village seemed to be washing dishes in the river, or washing clothes/rugs... which leads me to assume they don't have running water inside the houses. Most little homes had a dirt courtyard area with ducks or chickens and a dog and a donkey. The ducks were hovering in the water near the dish-washers in hopes of some bread or some other tidbit. The main mode of transportation in this area is donkey... and lots of "tuck tuck"'s which are motorcyles with a small enclosed 3-seater cabin. One seat is for the driver, the other two seats accomodate upto 5 humans strategically hanging on while holding onto crates of farmer's produce or armloads of laundry or flatbread.
After Al Atf, we drove to Manchea to the women's market and went to the spice-man... needed some turmeric and oregano. The oregano you have to pick through for sticks, rocks and other debris before you put it into the spice jar. I'd guess 10% of my package was debris, but the rest smells really nice, so I'ts worth a little time to clean it up before putting it into the Penzy's Spices jar. They'd surely cringe if they knew I was reusing their jars... but they're air tight and bug proof, and best of all: they match. My cupboard looks nice and tidy. ahhhhhh. We also went to the pork butcher and stocked up on bacon, sliced smoked ham, ground pork meat, liver paste, ribs and mozzarella cheese. I spent 200 LE (about $40) for 5 kilos of meat, that's pretty good.
Looking forward to seeing you Pa :-)
1 comment:
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