this and that

The idea blogging seems intimidating right now so I will start with a few quick hits and if I come up with some stuff I wish to devote a full entry to, well that will just be super duper, won't it?

First off, the minaret singing is becomign a love hate thing. Not so big a fan when I'm trying to sleep (or when they are moving metal gas canisters onto a metal flat bed or when the cats start singing humping fightiong outside my window) when I'm trying to sleep. But when they have a particularly good singer on there and the sound is relatively clear I quite enjoy it all. When we're on the roof in the evening and the breeze is blowing down the dead sea valley strongly and all you have to do is enjoy the evening and write, it doesn't seem so bad.

It's interesting watching the varying degrees of Islam. From the full burka to the full burka with a wicked pair of heels to head scarf in classy shirt to head scraf in skin tight... and that's just how women dress. Ibrahim, one of the Bedouin I work with, was explaining how beer is okay sometimes (and was prescribed for his wife's upset stomach once) while whiskey and other hard stuff are no nos. It's all in the details. Take anything to an extreme and mess up people's lives too much and they are bound not to follow, but allow a degree of flexibility so people can fit the religion into life and life will work that much better.

At the same time, being here, one notes how the ge4ography pf the place influences cultural formation. Long sleeves only make sense in the sun (although the women all in black is still a mystery), equally wise not to booze and dehydrate. Pigs...apparently theor flesh goes bad faster than other anuimals, and aside from that pigs root, and there's no better way to ruin what little arable land there is and remove moisture from the sopil than to havew a pig scrounging around digging everything up.

Hrrrrm. I think I'll give some more details on Petra and Crusdaer castles but that deserves another post...just trying to think of anything else to add here. I'm sure it'll come to me as soon as I press post.