Bitch in a burka

Helwo, my camera is still broken, but do I have a story for you, my eager readers. It is hands down the weirdest cultural shock of my life, and I'm going to share it with you. So it's about 7 at night the other day, and I'm standing outside my building's front door waiting for my buddy to come pick me up. As I'm standing there talking on my phone, a lady was walking toward me. Now mind you, this was no "ordinary" lady. She was wearing a burka (the long black robe) and complete, and I mean complete, face veil. There was ZERO skin showing, no eyes, no hands, nothing. The burka is very common here as is the hijab (head covering), but it's rare to see a complete face veil. Occasionally you'll see them with the 3/4 face veil with nothing but the eyes showing--which is freaky. Anyway, this black bed sheet is walking toward me and I think she is trying to get into the car I'm standing next to so I move over a few feet. All of a sudden I hear "durka durka bakala" or something like that. She repeats it again, at which point I realize she's talking to me. Now the culture here is that men generally don't talk to women unless the woman in question initiates the conversation. And I assumed she was initiating something, although it was in Arabic. So, I turned toward the black blob and said "excuse me?" She then says--get this--"I have no husband. I need husband." What the fuck? I would have loved to see the look on my face when she said that. Anyway, she then repeats the phrase with a bit more urgency, this time pointing at me and then at my building. I'm dumbfounded, and at this point the 10 or so guys standing at the mosque about 15 feet behind me have started to watch the show. Talk about stuck in between a rock and a hard place, damn man. I don't know what to do, so I just say "You have no husband?" She then repeats a few more times "I have no husband. I NEED HUSBAND." All whilst pointing. Finally, her phrase changes and she says "My husband died. I have no money. I need money." AH HA! Money! I can do money! So I said "no money? Hold on." She shakes her head yes while I'm frantically digging in my pockets for some fills. And do I find any? Fuck no. All I have are dinars, and I'll be damned if this lady is getting a dinar ($2.65). By that time luckily Doug had pulled up and I ran to his car and asked for 300 fills (.75 cents). I go back to the black ghost and she extends her hand (which is covered) and I give her the money and run like hell back to Doug's car. So what the hell happened? I've talked to a few locals about it and it could have been a few different things. The least likely is that she was actually propositioning me. If that was the case, and had there not been anyone around, and had a some booze in me, I might have said "sorry, I need to inspect the goods before I purchase them." Or, "I need to make sure the oil has been properly changed every three thousand miles before I buy this used car." Or "I'll give you 5 dinars just to take off the veil." Man, I'm glad this blog is private. The second more likely option is that she was a prostitute and that's why she was pointing at me and the building. I'm told they wear the full face covering so the family doesn't know she's out there whoring herself out. The third option is that she was just a basic panhandler. I've seen women do it before around the island, but they have all been sitting down like big black rocks with the arm outstretched. There is zero communication between you and them. And the fourth option could be that the guys at the mosque were testing the American guys to see what they would do with her. Would I take her upstairs for some Muslim love? Would I run scared shitless (which is what I wanted to do)? Would I give her money? Anyway you slice it that was a situation that I don't want to happen ever again. And it might, because I was told since I gave her money the likelihood of her returning is better. Fuck. I hope she took that mere .75 cents as an insult knowing damn well I had more--because I had about 20 dinars (50 bucks) on me that she saw. I dunno. Just thought I'd share that with you all. If she returns I'll be sure to let you know...