Carpets are an important part of this culture. I'd say they are intertwined with the great value of hospitality that exists here. When you arrive at someone's home, this is where they immediately seatt you-- on the carpet. They usually set a pillow and invite you to sitt on the middle edge against the wall. Then a few times I have had the entire population from the village of women and children form a semi circle around me and stare. They will give me a cup of tea and cookies and watch. One village I was thankful that after many giggles and side comments to each other, a little boy stepped forward and showed me through actions how to properly have tea and cookies. I didn't know to dip the cookie in the tea before eating it!
We decided to buy a carpet in the anticipation of friends coming over. We heard it was best to get carpets up at a border town so when we went to visit our office we took a local friend with us to carpet shop.
The man pictured is the successful salesman. He had a very pleasant spirit, with a ruggedness that revealed him to be a man of the frontier. After viewing about 10 carpets, we picked (well, Joe kind of deferred to me) the one we liked. Of course over a cup of tea, we negotiated the price.
Carpet as it sits in our front room
3 comments:
Everything truly does happen over a cup of tea, eh? Being Americans that must require a bit of patience. I'm sure in some ways its refreshing to have so much interaction with the salesperson compared with in the u.s. where you're herded like a cow through every sales interaction.
ooooo ahhhhh! pretty carpet :) can't wait to see it in person! someday, i'll make the trek... think mom would be more comfortable with me going to Pakistan instead of Africa??
i would love to have tea and cookies with you on your new carpet.
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