Coffee

One of my friends was making me coffee the other day and her little 2 year old girl was climbing all over her back. It made it impossible for her to use the mortar stick thing to grind the coffee beans, but in typical Arab way she wouldn't let me grind the beans for her and she wouldn't ask the Fatina to stop climbing, even though the little girl is blind and there was fire right next to her so it was actually kind of dangerous.

She also makes these oven things. It's always fun trying to figure out what things are in Arabic. I was sitting there and out of the blue she brings this thing over and sets it in front of me with a huge grin so I know it's something she's proud of, I just don't know what it is. So I start asking questions like 'Did you make that yourself?', 'What is it?', 'What do you use it for?' etc...I always feel stupid, like when a little kid brings you a picture they drew and they expect you to know exactly what it is when you have no clue.

So I know the word for oven in Arabic, but since this isn't the kind of regular oven you'd find in a kitchen it has a different word and I don't know that word, so it took a while for the idea to come across that this was what she uses to cook food on. Then she explained that she makes it by hand out of mud and donkey doodoo, then sells it in the market for $1. Yep, when we're talking poor people we're talking people who spend hours crafting an oven out of mud and then are really excited to sell it for $1.