It Ain't Exactly a Paradise

The 8 year old girl surprised her family one day by saying: "Salt is missing". Enquired her father: "Well I never, you can actually speak?" "Of course I can." "Why didn't you say a word, all those years?" "Because there wasn't a reason, everything was always there......."
One can hear that we have equal rights for men and women, I sometimes joke, the girls yell just as loud as the boys, only with a high pitched voice.  The other day some women were pretty close to having a fight, boys appear to be always fighting, they call it fun.  But in the classic old  cafe you usually see only men. Women have to do the cooking and clean the house, I am told, while unemployed men look for a job sitting in a cafe? Whenever I go shopping with my husband and give the money to the person behind the counter, the change is handed to my husband. Is this solidarity among men? Well no, women act likewise (only a couple of exceptions). When my husband pays, no one tries to give me the change. Very strange in view of how many women work nowadays. Yesterday I asked a young man to explain his action. He was surprised, laughed and said I guess we do this without thinking. Sometimes I am asked: " How much do you want to pay?"  Whenever I answer that I actually don't want to pay, but I'll take the goods anyway, the reaction is not what one might expect, folks just laugh and say okay, no one gets annoyed, it never happened! Great country! It is not easy though for those with rather limited income and rising prices. As the exchange rate of the Dinar drops, imports are getting more and more expensive, some goods are no longer available but with a bit of luck there are alternatives on the market. End of the year approaching, time to buy a new diary. The saleswoman in the shop advised me that she hasn't got any calendars. Briefly looking around I discovered a good choice of calendars on display (near her counter!!!), very strange. Was this mend to be satire? Some small food shops are facing financial difficulties, several shelves are more or less empty. Allowing poor customers to buy on credit can provide you with more customers, but even when the sum remains small, with many such customers it may add up to a sum the shop owner can't well afford to do without in the long run. When he or she says: "you need to pay your debt before buying more, I have to stop your credit," some promise to pay soon, others get annoyed, a few don't return anymore, a girl, approx 10 years old throw some coins onto the floor, showing her disrespect for the elderly shop owner. I wonder what values her parents teach her. These not exactly well-off minor shop owners fulfil an important function in this country, yet they are not appreciated the way they should be. It is sad to see folks buying even bred on credit (this French bred costs approx 6 ct a loaf). With a price like that nobody ought to remain hungry. By the way, I call these little shops which appear to be
everywhere (too many to secure a good turnover)
 "Uncle Ali Shop" (in Germany they were nicknamed "Tante Emma Laden"). In Paris I once saw in a pub a notice saying: "If you ask me for a credit and I say no, you will be annoyed, if I ask you to settle your bill and you say no, I will be annoyed, better if you are annoyed.

My Lovely Fur Family and Fur Neighbours

Cats are a special present from heaven. They motivate me to get up very early in the morning. Tiger usually sleeps at my feet and is the first to start cuddling and purring, so relaxing. Being greeted by my big fur family on the terrace a great start into the morning. They are so lovely and dislike the winter as much as I do. At night after they decided where to sleep (some have their favourite place) I cover them with their small fleece blankets to keep my little darlings warm. Like children they may uncover themselves so before I go to bed I check whether they are okay. Strange, on some days all cats, those that live with us and those who come to the cats' table, appear to be very hungry, on other days they don't feel much like eating. The other day only 4 cats arrived for breakfast, usually 10 or more are coming. What happened? Knowing that animals are often not exactly appreciated I got worried. Slowly more cats arrived, thank heaven. I guess they slept a bit longer just like the sun does now. Adele and Adamo, two injured cats that I successfully nursed and gave shelter in my library as my cat family did not seem to be willing to accept further members, started to remove my books from the shelving. Though they look pretty on the shelf, my books on the floor don't. Maybe they heard that books are getting out of fashion? Anyhow, time to integrate my little darlings. Unfortunately this means taking Adamo to the vet so that we won't have unwanted pregnancies, prevent him from marking his area and causing less problems with the other tomcats. Following the operation I slowly introduced Adamo at first to those ladies that welcome all newcomers, Lilly, Felicitas, Eileen, Suzy, Amelie. It all worked well, I guess Adamo's gentle character was helpful. A few days later it was Adele' s turn. She was very nervous in view of the new surroundings, this changed when she saw her old companion, Adamo. He gave her a special welcome, showed her around. They still stick together a lot. Another new addition, little Janina, approx. 3 months old. One day she appeared in front of my entrance door and pretty much stayed there. She tried to gain entrance a few times, this I refused for a while. One day I discovered she suffers from a gum infection and has a small injury on her right ear. I treated her the way I learnt from our vet (I meanwhile have a little pharmacy for cats). Gentle sweet Janina allowed me to apply that blue liquid onto her gum, not very pleasant, other cats hate it. Even though we are already a big family, I decided Janina deserves to live with us, rather than spend these cold nights outside. Diana performed an acrobat exercise, she filled an ashtray on the floor, not one drop beneath it, I guess she doesn' like smoking? (My husband was not amused.) For our neighbourhood fur angels I leave a bowl of water and dry food ( Croquettes) outside, in the beginning in a pottery bowl, which repeatedly got either broken ( by football or on purpose) or stolen. For a while I have now been using the empty plastic ice-cream boxes instead. On various occasions these disappeared over night. Hopefully stolen to feed cats or dogs, (not "just for fun") but the croquettes are a special mixture for cats rather than dogs. Nonetheless I am not happy with stealing, we prefer to have honest neighbours. It is getting colder, though quite a bit warmer than in most parts of Europe, but it feels alike. Winter means a lot of coughing, sneezing, running noses. As cats can' t use handkerchiefs, nature has another, not very good solution: licking. Whenever possible I clean their nose, ears, face, they don't like it, but more or less tolerate this procedure,  some of my homeless darlings more than my in-house treasures. Not all are the same, several of the home-less angels are so gentle, it is unbelievable and unlike quite a few kids and youngsters here, they know respect!  When I am cold, I don't switch on the central heating (haven't got one), but whenever possible walk upstairs to my roof terrace and enjoy there in the middle of my great gorgeous fur family the free heating from heaven.

Postscript It ain't Easy

Mother: "Time to get up and get ready for school." Son: "I don't want to go, nobody likes me there. The students don't like me, the teachers don't like me, even the secretary doesn't like me." Mother: "But you must go, you are the director!" What do teachers and students have in common? Lack of motivation...... of course not all are like that. Holidays are long and there are many, classrooms are not very inviting, I am told due to lack of funds. Self-help could be a cheap solution and students interested in pleasant surroundings would be helpful. ( Several obviously aren't, as the areas in front of schools proves, so sad, even plants damaged, torn off on a small gardening strip, some appear to consider litter more attractive than flowers.) Often, all too often I would say, school finishes early, (I have seen kids returning from school between 9 and 10 a.m. maybe because the kids are too advanced?) or teachers are on strike yet again! Children get accustomed to being "free of school" and those with ignorant parents possibly also to being "not restricted" by respect and self-discipline. Not everybody can afford to send the children to private schools in order to enable them to get a good education. Quite a few children travel by taxi to and from school. (I recommend for comparison: "Al Jazeera English documentary: dangerous school routes) This remains me when I was young, walking 5 km to grammar school so that I can save the bus fare and buy myself paperback literature. I wonder how many children here still read books? How many non-academic parents encourage their siblings to do so? I noticed that the spelling in English of those folks who learnt this language as a foreign language, is often very bad. Interesting, for those who speak German, this pigeon English is easier to understand than for an average British or American person. The spelling could easily be improved by lots of dictating exercises. If you get the spelling wrong you might end up saying something you don't mean. One can find identical words in different languages, but with a different meaning. In Arabic the word "Fluss" means money, in German river, "Gift" in German means poison, in English present or talent. One way to get misunderstandings. Kids often ask me for sweets, "Bonbon" or chocolate. One little boy who received a muffin a couple of hours earlier, returned, requested chocolate and even named the brand, a medium-priced imported product. As I advised him that I have no chocolate in the house, he declared that bonbon would also be okay. I declined and suggested he returns the next day. So he enquired what he'll receive then. This proves he is educated (knows brands) and has good taste. While I've been advised by local women not to hand out sweets ("they'll be at your doorstep every day, tell them to go to the small shop near your house"), I now understand why these kids can't buy there, the shop-keeper only sells cheaper sweets. By the way, there is delicious, locally produced jam on the market, the tinned one costs less, is just as excellent and quite cheap. Winter has arrived, cold and damp, around where I live it presently takes place from approximately 16.00 hrs until 10 a.m. , nevertheless I am looking forward to spring and summer, and so do my cats, they just love the sun.