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Published: September 11th 2006
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When I opened my eyes this morning, the three little girls were already sitting cross legged next to me, waiting for me to wake up.
We cleared and packed away the mattresses and had breakfast of bread, butter, jam and black coffee. There was some discussion in arabic between Habib and Halima, and my coffee was taken away and replaced with a new one with milk and no sugar. Meanwhile all the cracks in the doors and windows had filled up with eyes again.
Habib then left me there until tomorrow while he visits his family in Sidi Kada, the village further on.
All day neighbours streamed in to pay visits to speak to Halima, all the while staring at me. At first they looked wary, then, as if bursting to make contact with me, they would ask questions; "Why do you have milk in your coffee?". This was translated by Halima's 10 year old daughter, Nadia, who spoke some French. "Why don't you eat meat?" ... "Why don't you wear jewellry and make-up?"
In the afternoon we visited a neighbour. I was the only female over 15 NOT wearing a full burqa, and felt like I was show-piece. The neighbour friend had an 18 year old daughter who spoke good French, and she did a lot of translating. Her mum was so hospitable, bringing out food and drinks and bending over backwards to please. We had lunch sitting on the floor - as noone has furniture here.
After that we ladies all went to the Communal Baths together. We got undressed in the change rooms - all the women and girls were completely naked. It was a strange phenomenon to go from seeing women only in full burqas ... to about 200 women in nothing! It was like a giant sauna with taps and cups that you used to scoop up the water and douche yourself with. Again, all eyes were on me, and the same questions continued. Now it was all round the town that a foreigner was here, but that she had milk in her coffee, didn't wear jewellry and didn't eat meat. They thought I was verrrrry strange.
Halima gave me a bath mitten that I was supposed to scrub my skin with, and I don't think I've ever been so clean.
When we got dressed again, I turned the questions on them; "why do you ladies go around wearing burqas?" They looked puzzled, as though I'd asked them; 'why is the sky blue?'.
We walked home via the markets, with the usual crowd following us. At one moment, Halima turned to a crowd of teenage boys who were laughing and pointing at me, and yelled something in arabic to them, sending them all off running. Halima wanted to buy me a dress and as much as I insisted that I didn't need one, she was adamant. She found a long purple and white floral one and promptly bought it. It was a long robe dress that the arab women wear. She said she wanted me to wear it when we got home. We called into a perfume shop and were each treated to a shot of perfume on our wrists by the shop owner.
In the street, Halima stopped a women and asked her where she got her veil from, as she thought it was a very pretty one and wanted it. So, we took a detour to a certain veil shop where we admired folded up wads of material, while the keen and courteous shop owner proudly displayed them.
Our next port of call was Mami's French teacher's house. We knocked on the door and a lady with tatoos on her face and wearing colourful scarves opened the door. She looked me up and down and her mouth dropped open, then she literally dragged me in immediately by the arm. We arrived at a room with about ten women and children all sitting on mats. Tea and biscuits were brought out immediately and placed right in front of me. The same sorts of questions were asked in French and Arabic. Not one of them had heard of Australia. Some thought it was a town in France. One person asked if it was further than Libya. It dawned on me that their concept of the world was limited to North Africa and France, which was no wonder as not one person had a TV.
At sunset Halima, Mami and I went home and Habib's smiling brother was home from work. He immediately came up to me and gave me a bar of chocolate he had just bought as a gift. It was so touching. We had cous cous for dinner, again sitting on the floor, eating out of plastic bowls with spoons. She has no fridge or running water. There is one toilet that is shared between four other houses and no shower. Her only piece of furniture is a wardrobe where she keeps her bedding and cushions. But everything is spotlessly clean.
Again the neighbours couldn't keep away and soon a large party was happening. They brought out tamborines and started belly dancing. They tried to teach me how to wobble my stomach much to the amusement of all the children who sat around giggling.
When it was time for bed, Halima again brought out her mattresses and carefully unfolded them and we all slept together again.
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