Thursday 17 July 2008

Day 20 (Cont'd): Community Dinner


Today after the mawlid and 'isha prayer, we were invited over to the home of one of the western women who lives here for a community dinner.

Walahy we had so much fun. My expectations were twofold: either no one would dress up or everybody would be incredibly dressed up like we do back home with women-only parties, but thank god it was somewhere in the middle. No one was dressed up, but for once, everyone was wearing colors, which was a wonderful thing to see after the black black black everywhere.

We were sitting on the roof, and the rain early this morning made the air incredibly fresh and fragrant to breathe. The full moon was beautiful. A small group of women had been hired I guess to play the duff (a kind of drum/ tambourine that some say is the only permissible instrument for Muslims to use) and sing nasheeds, and it really set the mood.

It was really inspiring to meet all the western women who are living here. I notice that a lot of them have really young kids—it'll be interesting to see how these first generation Tarimi westerners turn out and what they'll do when they eventually go back to their countries.

So a great night overall—wonderful food, wonderful tea, wonderful hospitality, and a great end to our day off. A little girl gave us lessons in playing the duff; we sang nasheeds together, and we got an informal class in Tarimi dance.

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