I take off my shoes and follow him into the
house, where he calls for his sisters. They
respond, but only come out when Youssef is
outside and has closed the door behind him.
One of them comes to meet me. She is a small,
curvy woman wearing a long skirt, a thick
woollen sweater and a black headscarf. She
smiles, makes it clear she does not speak
English and gestures me to follow her. I enter a
sitting room and am introduced to two other
women. The room seems to be their communal
bedroom. The floor is carpeted and along the
walls are several mattresses, which they also
use as couch. In one corner is a pile of bedding
and pillows and a small closet with some
clothes. In the other corner is a TV that is
showing American movies dubbed to Arabic. A
little boy is lying on his back watching the TV.
He does not even notice I am there.
get changed. Once upstairs, Peter comes to tell
me that the guys are going out. Youssef will
take them to a coffee shop in town. It is
immediately clear that this is a men-only night
out and I will be spending the evening with the
ladies. I go downstairs and sit down on one of
the mattresses. One of the ladies brings in a
tray with fresh fruit juice and a bowl of
chocolates. I wait to take a sip until they also
have a drink. They look puzzled. Once they
understand that I am waiting for them, they
make it clear that I should not await them.
Instead they wait until I have emptied the glass
and have put at least one chocolate in my
mouth.
Soon after another large tray with food is
brought in. In the middle of the tray is a large
bowl of soup and around it are several small
bowls with salad, vegetables, bread and fries.
The women invite me to sit with them. I am still One of the other ladies brings in a plastic bowl
wearing my dirty bike gear and try to explain
and a kettle of warm water. I watch how the
that I want to change into some clean clothes
little boy holds out his hands over the bowl and
before I sit down. They ask how I became so
the lady pours the warm water over his hands
dirty. When I tell them that I have been driving so he can wash them. I follow his example. The
my motorbike through the dirt and the rain,
women sit down around the tray with food and
one of them runs straight to the front door. She invite me to have dinner with them. I sit down
opens the door a little, peaks outside and
beside them, but try to explain that I have
reports to the other ladies.They are bent with
already eaten earlier that night. No matter