The Past Few Days

So our cousins Mila (23), Llamia (18), and Yasmene (18) have been our personal tour guides. They have showed us so much of Algiers in the past two days. We went to my family's clothing store that my grandfather used to own. My Uncle D'Jamel now runs the store. Since my dad is the oldest he techinically is in charge of it, but he can't run it from the U.S. so my uncle does.

After the store we went to this massive war monument. It was incredible. The floor underneath it is all marble. No one is allowed to walk on it. If you do, the guards will shoot you with their machine guns. We see a lot of machine guns here.

Yesterday we went to a museum of Algerian art. It was really cool to see some national treasures and a lot of traditional pieces of paintings and art of Algeria. At one point it took us 15 minutes to translate the word "summary." My cousins speak very little English because they all speak Arabic, Berber, and French. Sahra speaks French. My cousin Yasmene also speaks Spanish. I speak English and Spanish. We sort of form a language train and end up understanding what is being said after a few minutes. It sounds like the United Nations everywhere we go.

Everyone has been so friendly. Store owners, waiters, cops. We don't know if it's because we are American or if it's because we are female. You never see any women on the street. It's all men everywhere. All the time. And they stare at you. I mean stare. It's as if they have never seen a woman before. And yes, Sahra and I have been hit on, proposed to, etc. The women you do see are covered. Long sleeve shirts. Pants. And a head covering. And it's 92 degrees here.

Today we are going to the zoo and staying with my uncle, his wife, and his four kids. More to come soon!