99. beer and family life

A lovely thing about being here for longer is doing the every day, low key, ordinary life things that we do at home, but here, with people who live here, whose lives are so different and yet at the same time so very much the same.  So somebody says at the end of the day “anybody fancy a beer?” and instead of sitting facing each other around a table in a café, surrounded by westerners (hanger outers), we go back to a colleague’s home, play with his niece, chat to his sister, look at the family photos on the walls, say hello to their neighbours, share their meal and then drink beer in his room, companionably sitting cross legged on the floor, listening to his music, swapping films on memory sticks and talking about life and love and everything in between.  I was warmly offered a bed to sleep on and looked at it longingly (being somewhat sozzled after the beer) but thought my insomnia would disturb them and ambled home, chatting to acquaintances on the street, to be greeted at my hotel, as ever, with a smile.