No baby yet

Since 4 days, it seems like the harsh winter is over. Sometimes there is heavy rain or a hail storm, but usually it is bright and sunny.
The Aleppines still complain that it is cold in the morning. I really do not care. Today, I'm wearing less than half the clothes I got used to wearing (5 layers of T-shirts and pullovers, 2 pairs of socks and sportstrousers with jeans). And in Europe it is really really cold now and snowing heavily, so we shouldn't complain.

I'm very proud today because I didn't only find a dry cleaners to get my pashmeena scarf cleaned (It had become disgustingly dirty), I also found the dry cleaner's back in a labyrinth of streets full of shops of all kinds.

The next challenge is to go to the hairdresser. I first wanted to have my scarf cleaned, just in case the result will not be as expected.

The last 3 days I was in Ebzimo again, staying with Fozie and family. As she and her brother just came back from Mekka, they are having a lot of visitors. And a lot are interested in that European woman that talks a little bit of Arabic and that they have heard about.

Serwat also came to visit her father and Amtie. She still did not have the baby. But nobody is panicking. Allah will decide when the baby will be born.

Apparently, caesarians are very common here too. You just need the money. The hospitals are categorized from bad to excellent and the price varies accordingly. An acceptable degree of quality costs 30.000 Syrian Pounds, a huge amount for people having an income of 6.000 a month.

The next few days I will be in Palmyra. I'm beginning to know more and more people and that means visiting a lot.