This morning I write this post from inside a travel agency.  I am hijacking the internet (with permission of course)…my friend, Adel, is friends with the owner and so it was decided that instead of going to an internet cafe (and paying for internet use), I would come here. I was worried I would be interrupting his place of business, but I was assured it is quite fine and not an imposition at all.  In fact everyone here goes quite out of their way to make sure I am very comfortable and happy….it is sooooo important to them….and has made me feel so welcome and lucky to be here.  There is not a person I don’t meet who doesn’t give me a gift (dates are ubiquitious here in Algeria and that seems to be a favorite gift…this morning I was even given a bottle of perfume from France!) and they all want to know how I like Algeria and how it compares to my perceptions before arriving.

I am staying with my friends family in a town called Batna. It is about 5 hours south of Algeria and is nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges.  It actually reminds me a lot of the town that I grew up in…it is just a bit bigger and they speak with a thick Arabic accent :).  This morning we went for a quick walk to pick up cauliflower for today’s lunch.  On the way to the fruit and veggie market we walked through the spice market full of stands with mounds of corriander, couscous, pressed dates, cumin, hariss and every other colored spice you could think of.  We even passed a man selling roosters, rabbits and turtles!! Oh those turtles were cute….I am assuming they were being sold as pets, but I didn’t ask in case I was wrong :).

Couscous at the Belarbi’s.

We all sat in one of the sitting rooms (there are 3 in the house) around the table and ate from the community couscous bowl.  Pineapple Fanta has become a new obsession for me here so I used it to wash down the delicious dinner.  Dessert was pomegranates (from the mountain towns around Batna), baklava and tea.

My first morning in Batna I went to the Hammam with Adel’s mom.  I met the woman only 12 hours before, but that morning we got naked together :).  Oh, it was quite the experience.  She doesn’t speak English…and as I have well documented, I don’t speak French or Arabic….so our time together was a lot of me just mimicking what she did.  The best part though was her SCRUBBING me down from head to toe….and I am not exaggerating AT ALL.  She not only scrubbed all the Mali dirt off of me 🙂 (and in the hammam the scrubbing is such that you actually see the layers of skin rolling off of your body and into the drain), but she washed my hair…and conditioned it, took pumice stone to my feet and worked them until they were soft and then got me one of the ladies who works in the hammam to scrub me again and give me a massage.  We spent three hours together there…and I just had a wonderful time.  The hot steam and the warm water was so lovely, so relaxing….I would love to go back.  However, I have been instructed that I can’t go back for 3 hours :)….we were made fun of because of the length of our stay.

Yesterday we took a road trip to a majestic and breathtaking spot called Ghoufi.  We spent the afternoon overlooking the beautiful canyon and marveling at the old, abandoned homes that sat on the cliffs….reminder of a lifestyle that has since left this area.

Sitting on the cliffs of Ghoufi.

A fun fact:  Here the people actually “fish” for a special bird!?  During the months of February and March when this bird is building its nests, “fishermen” take line with hooks and attach feathers or other items the bird may want to make its nest.  They dangle the line off the cliff and hope for a little wind.  When the wind comes and the bird spots the perfect nest making material flapping in the wind, it swoops down to grab it.  At the moment the bird grabs the “bait” the “fisherman” yanks the line and hooks his bird!!!!  Who the heck thought of this!

Neu Neu, one of Adel’s friends who is from this beautiful area, was our chef at lunch.  We had picked up lamb in a previous village to BBQ in one of the old houses that clung to the cliffs of the canyon.  Salt and fresh rosemary from the hillside is all that was used for seasoning.  What we didn’t eat (just the bones) went to all the little wild kitties that were sitting so patiently behind us while we ate.

My guides in Ghoufi :).

Left to Right:  Adel, Neu Neu and Tarik

Behind them are the ruins of a hotel that once was.  In fact, Queen Elizabeth stayed a night or two here.

Tarik getting his feet wet in the river….I shortly joined him.

On the way home that evening I think we stopped at every appe and pomegranate stand along the road.The goal was to find the best of each in the area.  This valley is full of apple trees…and I think we were successful in our quest.  The trunk was full of all the fruit purchased along the way :).

This picture is actually from when first entered Batna (so 2 days previous)…this man made canyon was created by Napolean.

Okay, I am being summoned to leave for lunch!!! And must run without probably saying everything I would like…ugh…I take longer than I should on my posts :)…but it is fun to remember things and share!

Have to get this picture in too….it is of me on one of the dunes in the Sahara before we left.  The sand quite literally felt like baby powder!  It was delicious!

Just for fun….

Kids in Algeria pick their noses too! 🙂

This is Adel’s neice, Cee Cee, and her Mom, Hannan.

Little Cee Cee is quite the precocious little thing…and she only has 2 levels of volume, silent and screaming :).