Spices and things.

I was just thinking you women might want to know where we do our grocery shopping. I remember when my husband came here to visit before we came, one of my first questions was....."So how's the shopping?" I wanted to know how modern the markets were. Well.........

It turns out here we have one extreme to the other. Below our apartment on the first floor of the apartment building across form ours is a supermarket much like an American grocery store. Our other option ( the more exciting and interesting option) is to walk a few blocks to the suk. A "suk" is an open air market. Or to be more exact is a very crowded street that transforms into a market. It is packed with carts with fresh vegetables and fruits. Then little stores line the street selling live chickens, spices, beans, toiletry items, and.....really just about anything you can think of. There are little whole in the wall stores packed with imported stuff from Europe. Things are only sometimes cheaper in the "suk". Still the majority of the people do there shopping there, I guess out of tradition. I do about half and half. When it rains the suk becomes one nasty place. The particular suk we go to is on a hill. The area where the sell the fish is near the top of the hill, when you buy fish they gut it for you....throwing the guts on the ground. When it rains everything washes down stream! SO you can smell and see fish guts all threw the fruit and vegetable section! Obviously here there are no clean ups on isle 5!!Pretty gross! On a good day however, the smells and colors are beautiful. This is a picture of a little spice stand. Everything is always fresh. These spices make our little glass bottled ones taste so dull and stale.
Anyway, just thought you might enjoy a little knowing a little more about everyday life here in Northern Africa.