HW 34 Evening tea and Palm trees in the life of Riverbend

Evening tea in Iraq is very important. No matter what everyone is doing and how busy they are they always get together in the evening to wait for their tea. It is nothing like sitting down and having some tea in the U.S. Riverbend explains that tea in Iraq is not just placing a tea bag in hot water; you actually go through the process of making the tea. She states “First, is kettle of water is put on the burner to boil. Next, the boiling water and a certain amount of tealeaves are combined in a separate teapot and put on a low burner just until the tealeaves rise to the top and threaten to “boil over”. Finally the teapot is set on top of the tea kettle on a low burner and allowed to “yihder” or settle” (pg 108-109, Riverbend). She then describes how the tea is “flowered” with cardamom and served in istikans which are glasses in the figure of an 8. They usually have a light snack with the tea for example something like bread and cheese. One thing similarity from Iraqi evening tea to US evening tea is that they sit and make conversation. The conversation in Iraq usually consists of kidnapping, abductions and things going on in the war. Riverbend states how the topic of choice today was on the Turkish troops. I have never heard of date palms until reading Riverbend. Date palms in Iraq are useful for so many different types of reasons. There are over 300 different kinds of date palms. Date palms are used as one of the main sources of sugar in Iraq. Riverbend explains how people use dates for all different types of things like vinegar or “khal” and date syrup that you can eat with either rice or bread and butter. There is even a purpose for the low-quality dates which are used as animal food for sheep and cows. Riverbend states “My favorite use for date pits is . . . beads”(pg 104, Riverbend).