Filled Up

Yesterday I went to the market to try and round up some water. This is always a little intimidating to me. The water is turned on at four o'clock in the afternoon and dozens of young men and their donkey carts crowd around a small tower where a fat hose pipes out foamy water into their barreled carts. There is always a buzz of adolescent rough housing overlaid with the irritated braying of donkeys as everyone jostles awkwardly for space in the muddy alleyway. Determined not to be easily cowed in such a crowd I walked into the melee more confidently than I felt and asked who could bring a barrel out to my house on the other side of town. I got a lot of "Sorry Lady" looks and a couple of passing "We don't know where you live." When I tried to give directions guys didn't look up and continued their work or just passed me by on the way to sell their water at other people's houses. I persisted for a while but finally, defeated and having exhausted by Arabic, I went on into town for a couple of other errands. I was bugged though.

In town I stopped at the shop of a charming young guy who is sure he is going to marry my youngest sister. His sodas were cold and a Champion eased my frustration about the water situation. However, as I was preparing to pay, a man I have never seen before walked up behind me. I greeted him before realizing that he was in an altered state of mind - either crazy or drunk I wasn't sure. He looked at me harshly and started growling, "You are not welcome here. Go back to your own country Khawaja. We don't want you here!" followed by other words and gestures I didn't understand. I was surprised and unsure of what to say or do when he stepped up on the shop ledge I was standing on and grabbed me roughly by the arm and yanked me closer to him. Startled I stepped back and he let me go but continued muttered unintelligible (to me) angry sounding things. My friend the shopkeeper and a couple of other people nearby looked on with disapproval but didn't do anything. Embarrassed and more shaken than I wanted to be, a stammered a quick goodbye and left. That is the first time in the eight months that we have been here that anything like that has ever happened.

Today I woke up sick. It's just flu like junk but in Bryan's absence and on the heels of a bad day it felt a little worse than it probably is. I stayed in bed reading and sucking throat lozenges most of the morning, willing Thursday afternoon to come quickly. I got a call mid-morning from one of our friends, another shopkeeper in town who has sold us many of our building supplies. He greeted me and told me he was on his way over to check in on me. When he showed up he gave me a phone card (all cell phones are pre-paid here using scratch cards) so that I could fill my phone back up with credit. He said he wanted me to be able to call Bryan whenever I need to. Anything you need, anything at all you just call me, he said. I want to look out for you while he is gone because Bryan is my friend, like this, he said laying his two fingers side by side.

Minutes after I saw our friend off I heard a clanging noise outside. I got back out of bed and went to check on the commotion. A donkey cart, not one I had asked for, was at the gate. He came inside and filled our nearly empty barrel full again.