The Buffalo

Not too long ago, I found out that we have been drinking buffalo milk.  I thought yuck, no wonder it tastes different, but according to the locals, buffalo milk is healthier than cow milk.  I looked it up and learned that buffalo milk has less cholesterol and more minerals, so yeah for the buffalo. 

The milk comes in plastic bags and you have to boil it.  In the US when you buy raw milk you don't want to boil it because it loses many of it's nutrients, but here when you see how it is handled you can't wait to boil.  The bags are a kilo and cost 5.50 LE which comes out to almost 1 USD.   We drink 2 to 3 bags a day, in tea and some more in tea and of course chocolate milk, but mostly in tea.  

In Egypt they have special stores that only sell milk and some milk products like cheese.  The cheese comes in several varieties from extremely salty to no salt (which is still salty).   We usually get the no salt one and spread it on bread.  The cheese is creamy like cream cheese but a slightly different texture.  I don't like it but the kids prefer it over mozzarella.  In these stores they also sell rooz bi laban (rice pudding) and something called  عashura (it's a barley kind of pudding).  They're really good.  We restrict ourselves to only having them when we feel like, which is most days that start with yoom.  

P.S. Did you notice my  ع it's pretty cool.  I'm starting to love the Arabic language.  I love how it looks.  So watch out I might start posting in Arabic soon.

218

218 That is the number of days that I have been away from home, but who's counting. It's been 7 months, but it feels like so much longer.  

It's been 218 days since I saw a rain shower.  The day we left Florida it was raining really hard.  I didn't realize it at the time that, that would be my last time.

What is this obsession with rain?  I don't know.  I do know that when it rains everything is cleaned and the air smells different.  

Alot has happened in the time we have been here.  At first it was slow going, but now it seems that we are finally doing the things we came here to do.  We attend 2 halaqas every week.  We take 2 Fossha  and 3 Quran and 2 Colloquial and 2 Conversation and 1 Seerah class every week.  Alhumdullilah, we are learning alot and staying busy.