Yesterday we went to the wood souq... at least that's what we like to call it. Really it's just a bunch of guys with tables set up on the side of the road and they're selling the animals and stuff that are carved out of wood. Really it's more the kind of stuff that you would think of from places like Kenya or Tanzania, but I can vouch that this stuff is made here. They actually sit underneath their tables for shade whil they carve and stain stuff right in front of you.

It's really cool because right behind this picture you can see the Nile. Actually, it's not supposed to be the Nile but right now the river is the highest that it's been since before 1900. If you look way back in the left side of the picture you can barely see a line of trees..that's where the river is supposed to be.

Here you can see that their 'tables' consist of broken car windshields held up by broken pieces of wood. Very practical. Also, this can give you a pretty good idea of what they sell. Mainly the animals, but also some tribal stuff, like these really tall guys with the spears. They also have a lot of other traditional tribal things likes masks.

Here's a situation that I never thought I would be in...in the Sandbox, standing between one of the busiest roads in town and the Nile, speaking in Arabic but jamming to Barry White and Amy Grant (of all people). That's right! Even though these guys don't speak any English, they still have some 'special tapes' just for when the khawajas come shopping! I must say that this did the trick because we hung out at this guys table just so that we could hear some clean English music and we ended up buying stuff from him.