Ding Dong.... "mah skeena"

In most parts of the world these ladies would be called beggars, but we call them "Mah Skeena" - a much nicer sounding word. We use the same word if a friend had a really tough day or if your teacher was really hard on you etc... Basically it mean - poor you.

So we get lots of them in our neighborhood. Maybe because we give them 5-10 dirhams which is about $2-3. I've started giving them clothes since several of them ask for that. I have NO idea what they do with our clothes!

Anyway, I've been quite proud of myself lately because I have started piling up "mah skeen bags" for us to give to folks when the doorbell rings. I put whatever I am getting rid of in the bags and Tom (who usually answers the door) knows what to give away.

So this afternoon the doorbell rang and I trotted out with my big bag of clothes and a mug (a hideous mug that was a gift from our friend across the street). I recognized this lady and asked her if she wanted clothes. She did not seem impressed and we were sort of struggling between language and culture rules for this dear poor lady to tell this poor rich foreigner what she really needed. We finally sorted it out. She just wanted uncooked rice.

When I came back with a ziplock bag full of rice she gave me a smile and a big thumbs up! I about died (= I also saw her gold ring on her finger....we ladies keep our dignity, don't we. Gold jewelry is the dowry for women here and it is one of the few things that is truly theirs and not their husbands'.

Since we are moving I have all sorts of things I can give away and I hadn't thought about rice. How silly. They eat it every day for lunch. You all have probably heard about food prices being 70%-80% up from where they were last year. This has been true here for sure. We have seen a dramatic rise in the last few months of folks stopping by the house.

I was at our big French grocery store chain across the border yesterday and there was a long list of food that now have price controls on them. It is the first time that has ever been done in this country. After I checked out, I realized that the cheese I buy has actually truly doubled in price in the last six months. I feel so bad for folks living in on the edge. On our side of town there are a lot of people in that situation.