Break is over. Readers are starting to pose questions and this is the point when I really start enjoying blogging - when we can have some interaction. Nonetheless, before answering their questions, we'll talk about Iftar and the effects of it in the everyday life. Iftar is the fast-breaking meal at sunset.
Yesterday I arrived when the sun was setting.
Yesterday I arrived when the sun was setting.
That meant most of the people were already getting ready for Iftar. And the streets were again quiet, with the exception of crazy drivers wanting to arrive home as soon as the accelerator would permit. Therefore, instead of waiting too much for a taxi or having a rive that could kill me before getting home, I decided that the suitcase and I would go home... walking. It made my back ache, but 20 minutes isn't anything. To cross some airports you would spend more time than I did. =P
Today, I relived again the experience of fasting because I was out in the streets. Actually in museums, but I am a NERD and I am MAD about museums, so I spent 6 hours in two places and didn't get to see half of the first.
When I came back home I needed to buy some food. I had an empty fridge after all. The bread's vendors comes shouting along my way: 3AISH!!!!! 3AISH!!!!! The most delicious bread is guaranteed: the local bread or 3aish baladi in my backpack.
The drinks' vendor also need to make a living, fasting or not. People can't drink in the streets, but nothing forbids them to buy the drinks. Many local drinks are sold in charts like this:
Globosapiens.net is the owner of this picture. ;-)
But today they were sold in plastic bags, so that people can take the drinks home. A plus to creativity.
I couldn't resist and had to buy some of the tmar hindi (tamarind) drink. Drink in the grocery tote and heading home, to find the fakahaani ("fruitier") selling a kind of fruit I didn't know before coming here:
He tells me the name of the fruit is teen. If he says, it is. But the translation for it is figs, and this obviously isn't figs. The fruit skin is very prickly and the fakahaani will always take the skin for you and sell you the fruit ready-to-eat. =)
The pink ones are the sweetest. Teens in the backpack and - home! After all I need a Iftar for my involuntary fasting. ;-)
By the way, you should read all Arabic transliteration as in English. And the sound of '3' is like a glottal "A". So just read a long "A". =P
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