Alabaster Factory

A few weeks ago we visited the alabaster factory of one of our friends.  

Alabaster pottery is one of our most unique and beautiful locally produced handicrafts.   Alabaster rock is quarried a few hundred kilometres south of us and shipped to local alabaster factories which shape the rough rock into beautiful pieces of art.  So far all of our guests have taken at least a few pieces home.  

Below is a worker rough cutting a huge chunk into more manageable shapes.  Notice his lack of eye protection and the cotton batting for ear protection.  I can't imagine the toll this kind of work takes as after only a few minutes our ears were ringing, eyes were watering and throats were hoarse from the dust.  

Two other men are working on lathes to create jar- like shapes

The last man polishes the jars to a nice smooth finish.  Notice the finished jars lined up behind him.  

The finished product.

Alabaster has swirls of yellow and white which, when illuminated from behind, give it an almost translucent quality.  It also has an ancient quality to it.  Even the most recently produced jar appears as though it was just excavated from an ancient burial site.  While it seems so fragile it actually is a rather rugged and durable material.  

It reminds us how we too are the works of a potters hands.  Fragile yet rugged.  Beautiful and unique.  Both temporal and eternal.  Ready to be filled.  Ready to reflect His light.  

Save the Cat

A few days ago we thought we heard meowing from our elevator.  Turns out we were right.  Somehow one our building cats got stuck in the elevator shaft.  So naturally we video taped his/her rescue.  Here is the 45s little clip we put together.  Enjoy!

BBQ!

I have been craving bbq ever since we arrived.  We shopped around for a decent bbq for sometime but unfortunately the gas type bbq's that we are used to are out- of- this -world expensive.  I was a little hesitant to get a charcoal bbq as we live on the sixth floor and I wondered what my neighbours would think of sparks and smoke billowing off our balcony and into their open windows, but my friend assured me that it is completely normal ... so we went down to the local market and invested $10 in a locally made bbq, a grill and 3kg of charcoal.  

The beginning stages.  

Instead of using lighter fluid we put a few pieces of charcoal on our gas stove until they were glowing a nice deep red and then placed them in the bbq and fanned the rest of the charcoal until it was ready.   

Bbq'ing and smoking out our neighbours in progress.  

The final result.  

Delicious and well worth the extra time and effort.  

Plus I think we killed off a few mosquitos in the process.

The Feast

This past month marked the celebration of the largest feast in our country.  Our friends celebrate the feast to commemorate the story from their book of Abrahim almost sacrificing Ishmael.  The feast culminates with a huge slaughter of cows and sheep on almost every street corner across the country. It is a very festive time of year with lots of celebrations, fire works and, of course, meat.

Well to do families will purchase a cow or two, slaughter them, give 1/3 of the meat to family and friends, 1/3 to the poor and cook the remaining 1/3 and have a huge feast.  Moderately well to do families will buy a sheep or two and share it with their friends and family.  The remainder of the people will buy as much meat as they can afford from the butcher or wait in line to receive it from one of the generous people in their neighbourhood.  We were privileged to join one of our friends for such a feast.

Some of the pictures below may not be for the faint of heart of queasy of stomach.

A couple of cows being delivered.

 To the left, behind the yellow flag is a local butcher shop.  The street is red with blood flowing from his hard work.  Thankfully they later hosed down the street ... but unfortunately it didn't keep the black flies at bay.  

 The girls standing in front of supper.  

 The whole experience has yet to turn them vegetarian (A is back to eating chicken after about six months of abstaining due to the death of our balcony chicks).   

Another local butcher shop is down to the left while a crowd of people sit in white plastic chairs watching the butchering from above.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Cow is waiting his turn.  

A Few More Transportation Pics

Definitely one of my favourite pictures.  I'm not sure why but I can't help but find a large truck carrying a huge number of toilets somewhat haphazardly stacked on top of one another very humorous.  

A typical fruit cart in the market.
Imagine hitching your donkey to this cart and riding it for several hours from the outskirts of the city to sell your wares.  Not the smoothest of rides.

You can essentially have anything delivered here.  Best of all, because most everything is delivered via motorcycle or scooter, it arrives very quickly.   

 A sold out cart.

I think this is another ingenious invention, the motorcycle truck or the motruck as I call it.  It also doubles as a school bus if you have an extra large family.

Mini buses as they are called here are the most popular and affordable mode of transportation.  

One ride costs $0.07 and they go virtually everywhere at all hours.  Just avoid sitting near the sliding door....

A Hearty Breakfast

I am a super big fan of breakfast.  If I don't get a good breakfast, watch out!  I'll be grumpy, short tempered and pretty much useless for doing any sort of activity that requires any sort of effort.  Thankfully our friends are also super breakfast fans and they make a great breakfast spread.  

A few weeks ago one of our wonderful teachers brought us breakfast before class.  It was delicious and super filling.  They say that if you have a local breakfast you don't need lunch and I believe it.  The best part is that all of it is eaten with bread or your fingers and so it can easily be enjoyed on the run or even in your car on the way.  

 Our teacher preparing a special local breakfast just for us before our class begins.

The upper left corner is a type of bean paste.  Below it is fried falafel.  To the right is fresh brown pita bread.  Below is two types of cheese.  To the far right is a fried mixture of hot peppers and egg plant.

 I forget what this dish is called but it is spicy and delicious!