March 15 - Part 2

The next morning, as explained to me by my neighbors, children would be coming around to my door at 5 AM to go “trick-or-treating”. Yes that’s right…5 AM! I asked around and everybody confirmed…5 AM and all morning long.

Well, I am NOT a morning person and knew that if I went upstairs to go to bed that I would NEVER get up on time, so I spent a sleepless night on the couch. At five am, I turned on the lights for the kids to know that they were welcome. Nothing. 6 am. Nothing. 7 am. Nothing. 8 am. “Knock, knock, knock.”

Before I continue, let me explain what the kids are trick-or-treating for. Kids here go from door to door for hard boiled eggs, nuts, dried figs, sweets, fruit and small change! When I went to the shop last night to stock up for today, the shopkeeper explained that I was to give a collection of things, but that I especially needed to give out eggs. I told her that I didn’t want to give out eggs because kids would rather have candy! (Cultural faux pas # 2,349,211) I was then lectured, with the spiel ending in “well, you can just give us eggs for your holiday, Easter!” Agreed.

So the first kids came to the door and to my surprise, the kiddos were holding a bag of treats for me! In addition to the treats given to kids, neighbors exchange similar food with each other (oops, I didn’t shop for that!). The kids chirped, “Ciu, ciu,” which mimics the noise of birds, and I gave them their goodies. But because these kids were the first to arrive, to top it off, I gave them water pistols too! Thrilled, the kids ran off, and one young boy exclaimed, “Thanks! I’m sorry I threw the things on your balcony!”

So although I’m without sleep, it’s turned out to be a pretty good morning! My refrigerator is stocked with hard boiled eggs, I got a confession from the culprit dirtying up my balcony, and the neighborhood kids think my water guns are the coolest. Now I’m going back to bed!