Pita Store

The other day I was invited to work in a Pita store. I know the owner, since I only buy pita from him here in Akko. He asked me if I had any free time, and well long story, but I have lots of free time. He asked me to come back the next day at 7:00 in the morning. The next morning, I slowly pulled myself out of bed at 6, hoping to take a quick shower before working at the pita store. I turned on the hot water and slumped back to bed- making sure to set an alarm for 6:30. I woke up again from my alarm, walked to the bathroom, turned the shower on and realized it was freezing cold. There was no way I was actually going to take a shower in ice cold water at 6:30 in the morning. Instead I pulled on some clothes and stumbled out the door. I was a few minutes late and once I walked in Hasan (the pita store owner) motioned for me to stand behind the counter and bag pita with zatar on top. He later moved me to the back of the store where everything was made. I bagged pita, and then roles of bread. He made me Arabic coffee which was much needed since I still felt groggy from waking up so early. It was fun, and challenging, since he doesn’t speak a word of English there was lots of hand motions involved in our conversations.

Once the rush of children going off to school was done (around 7:45), he pulled out a few rolls of bread that were chilling in the freezer. He began showing me how to roll the dough in his special way. I learned three different types. I had to leave early for my Hebrew lesson and he asked if I wanted to come back the next day at 4:30 am to make the dough with him. So far I have not taken him up on that offer yet. But maybe in the future I will.