Shahia tayebah!

Samir is a Bedouin Arab, who runs one of the best butcher shops in the country, in Ramat Tivon, just outside of Kiryat Tivon. He is well known and people come from far away to buy his meat. His famous kebab mix, which we buy in the form of meat balls, beats everything else and the recipe has not been changed for generations. Him and Yoram are good friends and yesterday we were invited to his house for dinner. His business is flourishing, no wonder, so they have a huge property, and in true Arab style, most of the family members lived on the property in separate houses, which constituted something like a small village within the village.

Samir and his family speaks only Arabic and Hebrew, which forced me to use my Hebrew more, and I even squeezed out the few Arabic phrases I have learned, explaining that almost one quarter of my home towns inhabitants are Arab speaking. Yoram was taught Arabic for five years in school when he was a kid, so he understands the essence from a conversation. The advantage of knowing both languages when you live here is self-evident, and if things continue to develop like this, I will have many good opportunities to learn both Hebrew and Arabic.

And what is an Arab without Arabian horses? A cheap cliché, I know, but Samir actually has pure-bred Arabian horses. He brought out two beautiful mares to show me, one chestnut and one grey. And what do you know..? He mostly does western riding with them, and cattle work, like cutting, on Ranch Alonim, also close by. I used to ride western horses on and off for years, and I even worked full time with educating reining horses in Germany during one period. So, things are slightly too good to be true once more since I was invited to come and ride as much as I please.

Then time for dinner. Since he is a butcher, and a Mideast guy, he basically put one ox and one lamb on the barbecue and as if that was not enough, we had tonnes of salads, rice, tahina, olives, pita and more. Then coffee, chocolates, tea and fruits. Samirs mother joined us and both me and Yoram were completely fascinated by this amazing woman. She is closing up to 70 years old and had about 10 kids or so, the last two ones where twins. She had the greatest personality, a wonderful sense of humour and we had so much fun. She has the most brilliant Hebrew although she was never taught in school, and she reminded us a lot of Yoram's grandmother, who I have told you about before, although she is not that mentally sharp anymore. All grannies here seems to be steel-grannies, more or less.

I think we rolled home and Yoram could hardly sleep all night because he was so full. As if that was not enough, this morning it was time to go to the next food karahana, in Tel Aviv. Today we had a farewell picnic in park HaYarkon, for Anna, Amir and their son Jonathan, since they are leaving for one year in California. Amir got a research project there which meant that the family moves. Anna is one of the Swedish girls I have got to know since I arrived here and I must say that it is a pity that she leaves now, just as we are getting tight. But hey, they will be back in a years time and then I will still be here. In the meantime I have the other nice girls to hang out with, and who I can bombard with all my questions and thoughts and emotions revolving moving here. Don't really know what I would do without that.

Tomorrow I am off for Bethlehem on the West Bank, together with Miles, to train some aikido. More about that when I will be back.