Logan - first birthday
Logan
Logan
Logan at the beach
Fallon Day 114
Fallon Day 113
Fallon Day 105
Fallon Day 56
Fallon Day 48 with dad
Fallon Day 26
So you were in drought of postings, now you’re in flood!!! Well, would you believe a rainstorm? Maybe a little shower???
It’s cleaning lady day today, Saturday, when Mohamed goes to the office without me and I’ve put Elvis on the CD player. It’s only Elvis because we watched America’s Got Talent last night and there was an Elvis impersonator who was excellent and then I remembered I had Elvis Gold and thought I’d play a little… See how one thing leads to another?
Anyway, it’s cleaning lady day today (and I’m not sure what she and her daughter Yasmeen think of Elvis). Umm Rami is not working for me just now because she had a baby boy in the Eid (Mohamed), her 4th child which she sure wasn’t excited about when she got pregnant. So I haven’t seen Umm Rami for a while and the cleaning lady is her sister Umm Mohamed and she often brings her daughter Yasmeen (2 for the price of 1 so I don’t mind) who is about 14 I guess and has already had a position as a live-in maid but that family went back home to wherever they lived and Yasmeen now works casually. Mohamed sometimes suggests she could come and be our live-in but I don’t want that in essentially what is a 3-bedroom flat. I wouldn’t mind the “all the cooking and cleaning done every day” part of the arrangement but I don’t want the “someone living on top of us and with us all the time” part. If we had a bigger house with a separate area maybe…
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Umm Mohamed. Umm Mohamed wears a niqab which adds another dimension…. I need to tell her every time Mohamed is going to be in her sight so that she can put it on, she needs to wear it to clean the balconies or if someone comes to the door, so things need to be planned a little so that she has time to be appropriately dressed if there’s any chance of a man, including Mohamed, seeing her. That means Mohamed can’t (or doesn’t) move freely about the house while she is here and I have to precede him, announcing his presence. It also means that if he happens to come home early she eats in the kitchen as she wouldn’t eat with him - plus it’s more difficult to eat with a niqab, although I do see women out doing it. I guess that Mohamed could just do as he pleases and she would have to wear it all the time she was working but he understands that it is hot and more difficult so he is happy to be the one to make allowances (if that’s the right was to say it).
Interestingly Umm Rami doesn’t wear one and nor does Yasmeen, both of them just wear a scarf. The other really interesting thing is that once there are just us women in the house Umm Mohamed is quite unfettered and one day in the height of summer even washed the floors in her underwear! She always tucks her abeya up into the bottom of her knickers so that she has free and bare legs. And yet Umm Rami always keeps her abeya down and even usually wears leggings underneath…. One interpretation obviously doesn’t fit every woman.
Forgot to tell you the other day that Logan has started walking – he’s such a cutie – Lahni shares video of him on Facebook for me so I get to see him making progress. Would love to give him a cuddle though. And Fallon is growing like mad and smiling at everything and chewing rattles etc., she’s gorgeous. Ley’s partner Amanda is having a boy – his name is Finn. She’s around 21 weeks, due in February. I doubt I will get back home now until after he is born, can’t see how it will be possible with the business and all.
The business is slow to begin, if anyone knows of any travel agents with whom we could partner to provide tours I’d love to talk to them… give them my email or tell them to talk to me on Facebook under Nile Wave Travel. (Sorry another short ad break there, I think realistically you can expect one in each blog :-))
OK got to go now, I’m sure there was something else I was going to tell you but I can’t think of it right now, I got distracted by Umm Mohamed. I bet as soon as I post it will pop into my head. :-)
Promise to keep writing more regularly,
Lotsa love
Lyndall
PS Recently enjoyed reading “Salmon fishing in the Yemen” – look for it at your local library
