At the Zoo

I woke up this morning at 3 am to loud Arabic prayers and dogs howling and barking. Seriously one of the most frightening combinations of noises. The prayers echoed so loud it sounded like I was in a cave. They got louder and louder, circling up through the trees sounding almost like ghosts that were strangling dogs. I didn’t go to sleep back to sleep for a few hours.

So I know I’m supposed to be on bed rest, but I decided to go to the Zoo. (Mom if you protest I won’t let you read my blog anymore.) I went with Bulbul and Brian. The walk was long and filled with men, young and old, shouting out to Brian. “Hello! What country?”

The zoo itself was heartbreaking. Lions that barely had enough room to turn around. Hippo that was in a filthy pond and monkeys sitting on concrete with nothing to play with.

As we soon realized, we were more of a spectacle than the animals. A large crowd started following us and asking to take our picture. We should have carried a species sign: “Human species of white distinction dragged from their natural habitat of Natty Bos and Netflix in the distant country Baltimore.”

We found an amazing playground with a ferris wheel. We all got on it and made a larger scene. The very nice men who offered to help us on the ride asked us for money for their service on the way out.

Reza, one of the men working in IT with Brian, took us all out to dinner. We ate at a dark Thai and Chinese Restaurant. When we ordered sweet and sour chicken the waiter asked us “sweet or sour?”

Work is going slow but that’s to be expected in this molasses country. I'm learning a lot from just being.