Monday, February 25, 1929
This morning as I was going out to get some lunch I met Houda who insisted on buying me a dozen eggs and four oranges. Had the eggs hard-boiled at the hotel. Had dinner with him tonight. We all had sort of a bean-meat concoction with lots of juice. I wasn’t the accomplished dunker the other two at the table were and ran out of bread before the beans were gone. As this is the month of Ramadan when the Moslems fast from six to six, we had to sit at the table with the food before us, everybody with watches out. After-dinner coffee I had in an oriental bazaar shop next to the hotel. Coffee here is, as in Palestine, a cross between cocoa and coffee in taste, rather sweet, and very thick. The settlement in the bottom of the cup is always a quarter of an inch thick. Tastes very good, though.
Washed the khaki britches this afternoon and am fearfully waiting to see how many holes I rubbed in it. I can see a half-dozen places so far that need sewing. Then wrote a letter to Grandma. Again it was warm, even hot, and hardly a cloud in the sky. The P&O Morea and another Britisher troop ship were in today. Also three good-sized German ships and plenty of cargo boats. No mail again today. I know it before I ask. I’m getting to have a heck of a large acquaintance in this place and practically all Moslems.