Allah Kareem!

After cups of coffee, cups of tea & sugar, Arab dessert, and chocolate pudding, sleep is difficult- even at 2:30am. The sleeplessness is worth it since tonight I celebrated Iftar (meal of breaking the fast) with six beautiful Arab sisters and two German girls. We cooked, talked, laughed, and... ate!

Food is the heart of this society, and women's lives are centered around these meals. Friendships are built in kitchens and dining rooms.


Making the traditional Ramadan desert. Basically a fried pancake folded over and filled with nuts and coconut and chocolate.


I am making my very own!


Bashara and her mother! She knows she is adorable!


Mother and sisters. Plus blond German. Plus strawberry-blond American.



Its now 3am, and I am yet not alone in my insomnia. The neighbors are playing hide-and-seek in the street, and I can hear the sound of food frying from their kitchen. I think I even hear a vacuum cleaner. Perhaps it will lull me to sleep!