Tea or Coffee

You can't get too much tea or coffee around here.  Really, even if you try to refuse, they still serve it to you.  We've also learned that tea and arabic coffee are a major part of doing life here.  When you sign a contract you always start with the coffee.  When a man wants to ask permission to marry someone, he first places the coffee in front of the woman's father to see if he will accept (if the father drinks the coffee, it means he gives his permission).  

This past week we were not running short on our caffeine intake.  First, we saw the Landlord to our building.  Even after signing the contract with him and drinking the coffee and the tea the day before, he wanted us to come back to visit and have more coffee.  Then we met the neighbors across the street who also invited us over to have coffee, then tea, and more tea.  That same day Daniel dropped me off on "Light Street" to pick out light fixtures for the apartment.  I looked at about 15 different shops and finally narrowed it down to picking lights from three places.  When I went in and told them which light fixtures I wanted to buy, they had to put the lights together and put them in boxes with all the parts so it took a while at each shop.  Therefore, they told me to sit and wait while they got things ready.  And at each store they always did the same thing.

Store owner:  Do you want tea?

Me: No thank you, I'm fine. 

Store owner:  Do you want coffee?

Me:  No thank you, I'm fine.

Store owner:  Do you want tea?

Me:  No thank you.

Store owner:  So, tea?

Me:  Ok, tea.

I might not have had the shakes so bad after that if I hadn't skipped lunch.