Akullore Season!

Conveniently, akullore [ice cream] season coincides with sandal season, and has sprung overnight! One of my favorite images here is when the street fills with young school children meandering home, bracing arm-in-arm, and clutching a drippy, white blob of ice cream goodness in the outer fist. That goes for people of all ages, from sprightly kindergartners to drugstore cowboys to hunchbacked gjyshias [grandmothers]. Soon the evening xhiro (public promenade, like in Spain) will begin and we’ll have loads of people strolling up and down the new town road; boys checking out girls, old men and women making small talk with lifelong friends, people munching on popcorn, newspaper cones filled with sunflowers seeds, and roasted corn on the cob…