1 down, 10 to go

I was up LATE last night. I found out the Cards were going to be on AFN TV, which is usually a bad omen. They have lost all but 1 game I got to watch on AFN, but this is the playoffs and I wanted to see it. The game started 1230am local time, so needless to say, I was alone in my playoff watching adventure. It was a great game, well played on all aspects and was great to watch. It's just that 430am bed time was a killer. 10 more wins for the World Series. Fortunately for me, Zak had a doctor's appt or something and had to leave early, so it was an early work day!

Speaking of Zak, he does a strange thing. If he bumps into your foot with his foot, he has to shake your hand. I THINK its an Islam thing, but not all of them do it. It's really funny though because out of the blue, he will come up and shake your hand, because you didn't even realize he bumped your foot. Sometimes I kick his on purpose to see if he notices. Most of the time he does and its like OCD until he gets to shake your hand. He says it's basically so that whoever you kicked doesn't hold a grudge and then one day start a fight with you.

Tomorrow he is taking off because he is going shopping. He has to buy presents for his Fiance for the post Ramadan celebration. Until you get married, every Ramadan you have to buy her presents, and give them to her within 2 months after Ramadan is over. He said he will spend 200-300 dollars, and he makes about 700 a month. Quite an out pouring. Getting married is prohibitively expensive, to the tune of about 10000 dollars after bribes and presents and parties. I realize that's about the starting price of one in the States, but remember, the average income here is about 300 bucks a year. Takes a long time to save it, or you have to borrow it.

We explained divorce to them the other day, and they are just stunned. Here, only the man can initiate a divorce, and even then, he takes everything, including the kids, and she isn't allowed to re-marry. We explained that there are some questionable women in the states who marry as a profession, just trying to get the rich guy's money. It's amazing how different we really are.