Thursday, April 26, 2007

Good works

An urgent request came through the ether the other day, hoping that injera could be obtained and shipped to rural Idaho. My sister and her husband are celebrating the nearing end of his PhD quest, and are going to fete his advisory committee with an Ethiopian feast. The precious cargo is due to arrive sometime Friday afternoon. It's usually fun to go to the little Ethiopian store, and they offered me coffee, which they'd just made, but I needed to get the bread on its way and regretfully declined. The guy at the mailing store, who lived in northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon before moving here in the 1970's, was inspired by the sight of the injera to relate to me one of his highly-detailed vignettes, or linked vignettes, culminating in a poignant memory of his mother getting up early in the morning to knead bread dough and bake it fresh every morning, served with butter and honey. His employee, who said he was from Israel, remarked that after Christmas, they used to have a smaller version of this flatbread with honey and butter. I have listened to many interesting discourses and tales while mailing things.
One of my good friends has cancer, operable at least; hope, shock and anger mix in my thoughts. She's one of the truly good people.

5 Comments:

Blogger JS said...

I hope your friend comes through the cancer strong and healthy. Te diagnosis of cancer is frightening, but I've been amazed to learn how many people successfully overcome it. When someone faces such a frightening thing, the support of friends really help.

You're too fortunate to have such easy access to ijera. One of the things I love about visiting foreign markets is talking to the people who've lived in completely differnt cultures, cultures our own could profit from if we'd only pay attention.

7:17 PM  
Blogger Babette said...

Are you Mrs. Perils? I just saw your husband's water photos at Vicki's place. I love your evocative description of the Ethiopian store.

Yoga brings wonderful support and help in dealing with cancer. Hoping for your good friend...

I live on Tiger Mt. near the paragliding jump-off, by the way. I shall enjoy reading on down your blog.

7:54 AM  
Blogger isabelita said...

Mfm, if anyone could come out of this healthy, she could. She's also a person who downplays her own worries and needs, so we'll have to be persistent in support.

Babette, my friend has done yoga in the past, still uses some of the stretches. We like to rock climb, so I am hoping this surgery won't impede her climbing.
Do you paraglide? That's something I used to be interested in when I was yonger, and I know a few climbers who do it.

10:11 AM  
Blogger Kathy Rogers said...

Made me Google "inerja" and still didn't come up with much. Is it good?

Sorry to hear about your friend.

3:37 PM  
Blogger isabelita said...

kathyr, injera is made from a grain called tef, or teff, and it's sort of like a big sourdough pancake, which perhaps doesn't sound appealing, but it works well with the wats, the stews of lentils and yellow split peas and other various things that they serve upon the injera.
One neat thing about it is, it is very satisfying and nourishing and not full of empty calories.

10:11 PM  

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