Meat Street

I was going to wait to post these until I could get downtown and get more pictures. I took these last week when I went down for my cheese bread fix. Thankfully I ate my cheese bread before I had my driver take me down "meat street." That is not the name of the road - that is what I call it. By the time we got to "meat street" it was no longer a quiet morning. Everyone was out and about and cars were double parked and there was no way to get a good shot of either up or down the street to give you an idea of just how many meat stores are there. I will try it again at some point after I return from vacation. Have to tell you that my driver and I had a bit of a communication problem. It is enough to say that he probably already thought I was "a crazy American lady" from my picture-taking episode at the cheese bread bakery. I told him [my driver: SaH-mee] that I wanted to go to the butcher shops to take more pictures. Somewhere in my "English" instruction he misunderstood and we drove through the "wedding dress district." Up and down all of the little side streets and alleys where the shops had all their wedding finery displayed in their windows. I will return to "wedding dress district" to take pictures and share those, as well, at some time in the future. After I was able to make SaH-mee understand that I wanted to go where "all the animals are hanging," he dutifully drove me and shadowed me in a most protective way, for which I am most appreciative. Thanks SaH-mee!

For each of the shops where I took photos, I asked first, if it would be okay. The first shop I went in the guy working said, "Yes. 50 riyals." What? I'm not paying 50 riyals to take a couple of pictures! "50 riyals." No. "I will give you 10." "25 riyals." "I don't have 25 riyals, I will give you 15." We bantered back and forth for a couple of minutes - with him laughing the whole while and then he said, "Halas." Finished. The driver I was with had to tell me that he was only joking and that it was okay for me to take pictures. Both the butcher and the driver got a pretty good chuckle over the whole exchange. This was the first shop I where I took pictures. I will go back and deliver the photo of the butcher to him when I return from vacation - I doubt I am going to have time to go down before then - although I might try to get the SaH-mee to deliver the pictures for me...

This was the second shop. It was busy. The butcher / shop worker didn't have time to smile or pose but he was willing to let me take photos.

This was the final shop I "snapped." I wish I would have asked the two young men - locals - sitting outside in plastic chairs if I could take their pictures. But I didn't, because, frankly they were rather intimidating - and I am not easily intimidated. They were dressed in their white thobes which were COVERED in blood. [I'd hate to have to do their laundry! No amount of bleach could possibly make those dresses white, again.] The shop worker happily posed for me - again, on the condition that I take a copy of the picture to him.

As I was putting the camera away and SaH-mee and I were walking toward our car, one of the young men dressed in white red asked SaH-mee - in Arabic - why I was taking pictures. Do I really know what SaH-mee's response was? No. If I was only fluent in Arabic... For all I know, SaH-mee said, "She is just another crazy American that I've been blessed with driving today." All three of them - the two locals and SaH-mee - got a big laugh out of whatever it was SaH-mee said to them. Crazy American? Maybe. But pictures of "meat street" had to be taken!