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Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Afternoon Stroll

By Lia of the Yum Yum Café blog

The sun is shinning: a miracle after weeks of raining, miserable, grey weather. It takes exactly one morning of sunshine to put smiles back on the faces of people. I wander around town, from one place to another doing chores - pick up a DVD (Hot Fuzz), a quick stop at the cash automat, drop off a book at a friend’s place and buy vegetables for this evening’s dinner.

Buying vegetables is always last on my list. I know the owner, Nuia, of the shop. Actually, I’m not sure she’s the owner; she runs the shop. Her father does the product purchasing at the distribution centre at Hamburg’s harbour. Her mother makes and bakes Turkish specialities, which Nuia sells with the fresh fruits, vegetables and a selection of Turkish and Arabic dry goods.

If Nuia is not busy, we sit in the corner of a storage room across the hall from the shop and drink together a glass of tea or some “drink yoghurt”. The storage room’s door is always open, so when someone comes into the shop, Nuia wanders over, serves the customer, and then comes back and sits at the table with me without the slightest blip in our conversation.

Her sister, husband and young children live in one apartment above the shop. Her parents and Nuia’s younger brother live on the floor above that. Nuia and her teenage daughter on the top floor.

This afternoon, while Nuia and I sit and drink a cup of tea, her father comes in and I am formally introduced to him in Turkish. I answer back formally in German. I must have passed some test for ten minutes later, Nuia’s younger brother comes down and mans the shop for a half an hour. Nuia and I luxuriate in some uninterrupted conversation.

After a half-an-hour, the brother quietly, wordlessly goes back up to his parents’ and his apartment. Nuia and I quietly, wordlessly get up and go over to the shop. I buy my vegetables, thank her for the tea, and stroll on back home under the late afternoon sun.

Posted by Ronni Bennett at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Email this post