Everyday Life

We've had a hard time adjusting to the Ramadan schedule, like I've mentioned before, and have closed down more stores than I can count! Now that we've gotten the hang of which stores close at which time, Ramadan is ending!! We did start to get the pattern down though, so we had quite the planned out errand running. Between Ramadan hours and prayer times you HAVE to. Today we shopped at Ikea from 3:00-4:00. We had to be sure and be in the doors before 3:07, because that's when prayer was today (it changes every day so you have to be sure and check your schedule). As long as you are inside you can keep shopping, but no one can go in or come out until prayer is over, which was at 3:25. The store closed at 4:00 so we had to really know what we were going for and where it was located. Then we went to the grocery store and squeezed in what we could before they closed at 5:00. Crazy.

This guy in front of us was buying TONS of these little individual bottles of Laban, which is like a yogurt drink. We were sure that he knew how many he had in his cart and the cashier would just enter 'x however many he had', but no, he loaded every single one on the conveyer belt while we stood there and watched! You can also see in this picture how the gates are half closed. That's because they were closing and not letting anyone else in, only the gates from a few checkouts were still open to let people out.

If you know of a good camel recipe we'de love to hear it!!

(and decide later if we want to try it or not)

Produce section - which I've found out that you can't refer to it as 'produce' or no one knows what you're talking about - it's 'fruits and vegetables'.



Seafood. We watched the butcher weigh a whole shark today!



I have been amazed at the 'roastery' the grocery stores here have. It is a huge section with all kinds of nuts, dried fruit, and spices. It is so well displayed and beautiful to me. In the counter are the spices in their bins and you just buy it by the kg. The white packages on top are dried fruits. The bags sitting on top of the counter are different sorts of things pre-bagged.