Getting Help from Friends

I can't find evidence that I've ever written about these pictures either.  They're from last year, but they've been sitting in my list of posts saying "draft" for a long time, so I'll assume I never posted it.

Growing up, when someone in my town passed away, all the stores would receive a piece of paper with the information on the viewing and service of the individual.  That way, no matter where you went in town, and even if you didn't read the small town paper that came out once a week, you would still get information on the deceased in a timely manner.

In this country, a piece of black cloth is tacked to the wall in the neighborhood of the deceased.  It includes their name and some other stuff, but your guess as to what the "other stuff" is is as good as mine.

I do well to read this language when it's printed in a book, but if it's handwritten, I feel like a teacher all over again trying to decipher my students' handwriting.

And even if I could read it, I might not know all of the vocabulary.

I've shown you a funeral tent from somewhere else in town before, but this was one was on my street last year.  It blocks the entire road and stays up for three days.

My neighbor who used to live by me asked if I'd like to go with her to the funeral tent.  She let me borrow a black head scarf, and off we went.  We sat down, made some small talk with those around us and head nods to other people around the tent, and then after about 10-15 minutes, we told the family "bye," and left.  

I haven't learned all the funeral protocol yet, but sadly, there are enough around, that I'm sure I'll learn enough before I wish too.

After we walked back, my neighbor invited me in her house to help make dolma, but first I went across the street and got Keira to come back with me.

Little kids were playing in a swimming pool on my neighbor's front porch, and I knew she would like that.

I took this picture from inside the kitchen, looking out at Keira who was decided how wet she wanted to get while being fully dressed.

I've shown you dolma before, but here is a new picture.  As a reminder, it's a tomato/rice/spice mixture stuffed into different vegetables that have been hollowed out.  

Here, they are using zucchini and eggplant as bottoms and tops.

It's quite a process, and you can see how much rice they still have left in this picture.  

They are making a pot of white dolma (pink bowl) and red dolma (blue bowl).

Keira decided getting wet fully dressed was worth it.

But then my little miser brain had a problem when they decided to pour the water out after only an hour or so of swimming.  

At this point in the summer, our city was only sending water to the houses occasionally.  I remember having trouble getting all of our clothes washed, and sometimes, we all couldn't take showers on the same day.

And now, I see all this water just going out the gate into the street.  

Ouch!

Well, at least the gutters got clean ;)

Of course, after a couple of hours, I forgot about the water when the delicious dolma was served.  

Everyone here just uses their fingers or a spoon to scoop out of the dishes, and sometimes they don't even use individual plates or bowls and eat right out of the dishes.

I am so grateful for these neighbors and all they taught me.

Even though they have moved away, they often come back to see some family that is still here, and it's nice to catch up.  

I really need to plan a trip out to their new home because I still have some of their dishes from the last time they brought me food.

Talk about your bad neighbors....me :)