The very loud truck.

I thought the loudspeaker was blaring out a Islamic sermons.  At that point I barely understood any Arabic.  The noise was loud, grating and apparently mobile.  It would start off faintly, several streets away, stop for a while and then suddenly would sound close.  Was the truck in the street outside my house?  Perhaps it was a local politician trying to drum up support?  In any case it was a regular, and annoying occurrence.  I would try to block out the noise, pray and hope the obnoxious noise would move on quickly.

Some weeks after I first heard it I was walking to catch a bus.  Walking across the maydan (a large rectangular area of dirt in between rows of houses) I saw a white pick-up truck swing around the corner, and noticed the speaker attached to the top of the cab.

It stopped in the middle of the maydan and started blasting out crackly, distorted words that a man in an old white jellabiya was shouting.  The guy speaking into the loudspeaker definitely didn't look like an Imam or politician.  In fact he looked kind of scruffy.

Ladies started coming out of houses and making their way to the truck.  This was unexpected - why would they do that?  They were taking turns, and then leaving with a plastic bag full of something.

Vegetables.
It was a truck loaded with vegetables for sale.
The noisy 'propaganda' was a list of vegetables and their prices.

Many years later and living on the other side of town, the local vegetable truck became the place where I would meet my neighbours as we bought what we needed for the day.  A time to look forward to, to chat, a little walk for my toddlers, vegetables at a good price....
The noise of the speaker an announcement of blessing coming.

How often do I misunderstand, and miss the blessing in something?



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