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| Our road, Coming Back from Corner Shop - Our Place on Right |
Just as we’ve comfortably established the rhythm of the fruit and veg truck, it fails to show. Not much we need desperately, but we’re down to one orange 🍊and we usually have one each at breakfast 🍊 🍊. Is this because the municipal market will be starting up this week? Is the truck finished for good? If I go to the shop and buy an orange will that cause the truck to appear in my absence? Eventually I do go to the shop and buy three oranges and two bottles of Efes beer. And no, this does not make the truck appear. And somewhat later we realise that today is a national holiday, officially Youth and Sports Day. Clearly there will have been no youth gatherings and no sports events. And, it seems, no truck.
Keep an eye out for the neighbours as we wish to make a small contribution to the charitable offerings that are given at the end of Ramadan, particularly for feeding the poor. Ramadan will end at sunset on Saturday and be followed by days of feast and celebration, so it is customary to collect the offerings early enough that they will be available for food before the festivities start. There are various possible charities but we’re handicapped by lack of local knowledge as well as lack of language. However, we decide to put the money in an envelope and write the word fıtre, the term for the donation, on it. Takes a while to spot a neighbour we sort of know, as they all seem to have disappeared behind walls into their air conditioning, but when the man who drives the white truck emerges I don my mask and give him the envelope. “For fıtre”. He hesitates a moment, then smiles and says “I give”. Communication accomplished.
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