More on the city life

I'm back. I had to get help with the cord.
Our walk through the town was slow and meaningful. The walkways, not streets really, were cobbled, falling apart and extremely small. You could put your arms out and touch the sides of each building on either side. Along the sides were many small shops full of things that I've never seen before - for example, snails crawling around in baskets for you to buy, bark to chew on, open dried fruit just covered in flies and bugs, and a multitude of wares used by the people. Shop keepers were mostly men as the women were the ones who made or gathered the merchandise to give to the stores for sale.
The streets were dark because the sunshine couldn't make it in between the aisles as the buildings were too close together. The amount of people was astounding. Some were dressed in gowns but some were also wearing normal attire. Only the Arabs wear the gowns and hats or hoods. Following us everywhere and popping up out of the corners were the street dwellers and sellers who try to get you to buy for want of a better word - a second class item compared to the stuff in the stores. Most don't take no for an answer. I was lucky as I had Gerhard, who towers above them as you now know, and he seemed to ward off the would-be sellers around me. When I left his side or backtracked to see something, they were all over me.
In and around these small spaces were donkeys, truly burdened with too much stuff, trying to get around the crowds. This is why the screaming out of the words is important.
The smells are incredible, the amount of items for sale is unheard of and the feeling of hope for a sale from the merchants is more than one can stand. Several times throughout the walk, we were taken into special stores to learn about the craft. After this, of course, you were given a chance to buy the wares. G and I are pretty good at saying no to anything for sale but the women of this trip, mostly Americans and a few Aussies were buying up the whole city. In our carpet factory/home, for instance, one of the Aussies bought a 2000 dollar carpet. Ouch.
We went to a leather tanning outfit - small really but which gave many men a job, and watched as the men were standing and stomping in big vats full of die in order to give all the hand-polished leather a different colour. All day they stomp and walk in the liquid, not water by the way but a drying agent, with tiny shorts on. There are other men who place the leather to dry way up on top of the roofs of the buildings to be in the sun and yet others who take the wool from the sheep and do the same thing. I can't tell you how horrible it all smells - similar to feces, so that the owner gives the people pieces of mint leaves to help you breathe as you view the process. Our guide wouldn't even go in.
All around the area the homes and buildings are crumbling, the land is dry dessert-like and the heat brings up the smells until you just have to get within proximity to smell it. All in all. the people all around us seem to be perfectly happy and it was only us that thought something was amiss.
And we seem to walk around saying - these people don't know what they are missing but I think it's probably the other way around. We are too full of perfect lifestyles to even ponder being okay with living like this.
Pondering yet again about life in Canada.
J