I never before wrote about the clothing that's being worn here. That, what is a stumbling block in the west, is a very sensible thing here to wear: the headscarf. The reason is that there is often a strong wind and to protect your hair and skin in this climate it is good to cover your head. Even men cover their heads. For ladies the dress code is much more complicated. The traditional "toob" is a 5.5 meter long piece of cloth that is being fashioned around head and body. It is quite complicated to put it on, but it is even worse to keep it in place! Underneath many just wear their night dress, when you're wealthy enough you have a proper dress. At home they don't need to wear the "toob" unless there is a male around, who doesn't belong to the family. Modern ladies wear a headscarf in two different ways. One is tightly fixed around the head and shows that they've been on the pilgrimage, the other one shows they haven't done that yet and is worn loosely around the head. These young ladies wear long skirts with blouses or t-shirts with long sleeves. Another possibility is to have your head covered and have a separate piece of cloth tied to it which you can pull over the head to cover your face, so you'll only see the eyes. These ladies belong to the most conservative group and wear long coats in very dull colours like brown, black or dark grey. This is very different to the "toob" which usually are in very bright colours. They wear slippers and if affordable nicely decorated, otherwise the ordinary flip-flops. What to think of gloves? Yes, black gloves are worn by the conservative ladies and even during gym!

For men it seems a much easier dress code. They wear the same style and the only difference made, is the quality of the material of their "jallabias" , the white "dress" they wear. They cover their head with a scull-cap, called "taagiyya" and around it a turban called "9imma". Sometimes by strong winds they loosen the turban to cover their nose and mouth. To complete their outfit, if they can afford this, they have a white shawl positioned over one shoulder. The men too wear slippers or sandals and the poorer men flip-flops. It is not uncommon to see men wearing a uniform, having flip-flops on their feet. Again, there is a big difference is social class.

Children have to wear a uniform when they go to school. For the girls this is the time they start wearing their head scarf. Next door to my house is a private school and the girls wear white blouses and head scarves, with a red pinafore dress. Every day they start with loudly reciting pieces from the special book. Not that I can understand what they are saying as my Arabic is still not up to that standard. I do understand more than I can speak though.

Another typical thing here, is the way they sleep. The beds have no springs but ropes woven to a wooden frame. Well, this was the original way, now they use a metal frame and polyester "rope". The ropes are covered by a thin cotton mattress. The reason being that during the day this mattress is taken off, in order to use the bed as a couch. Often they stretch themselves on it during the day too, which is comfortable during the hottest hours of the day. The cotton mattresses seem to be the right thing to use as it will absorb all the sweat, but a disadvantage is that the cotton form lumps because of that. In the end this is not very comfortable. The same thing happens with the pillows which are made of cotton as well. Personally I find the cotton too hard to lie on, but it is different for me anyway. Most of the time I can use my air-conditioner.

Because of the heat people sleep outside on the balcony or court, if they have one otherwise they put their bed outside on the street. They cover their whole body, even their heads, with a sheet to keep off the sand. Sand is always in the air and it makes your skin and scalp itch. This is one of the big threads for people affected by leprosy, so we advise them to wear (sun-) glasses during the day and have their eyes covered during the night. People often can't close their eyes for 100% because 1 or more nerves are affected. Sand can come into their eyes and they won't feel it, but the sand creates damage to the cornea and blindness is a threat.

As told, the temperatures are very comfortable in winter, but it also gives us a lot of wind from the desert. This wind is in the mornings very cold. As you may know, in the desert it can even go below 0C. In the town we feel the wind, but where the leprosy affected people live, way out in the desert, it really feels extremely cold.

A couple of years ago TLM has been able to have them build houses on plots allocated by the government. Unfortunately all constructed buildings in this country, like mine too, are poorly build with big gapes between windows, doors and walls. This makes it very easy for wind and sand to come into the houses. For this reason our friends have to cover their eyes indoors as well.

The way people have their meals is different too. Usually a couple of dishes are placed on a huge tray and all sit around it. Bread is being used to scoop up some food to be put in the mouth. The white bread is of poor quality, but you can also get flat (pita) bread. Meat is very expensive so as an alternative beans are being used. These beans have the form of peas but are black and are called "fuul". You can buy this ready made "fuul" at each street corner and they'll put for you in a plastic bag. At home they usually add oil and white cheese if affordable. Another dish would be yoghurt with lots of sugar and this too is being scooped up by bread. As you can imagine this is not a very healthy diet and people who can buy food often are overweight. At the gym, which I attend, most women come to loose weight.