This World is Getting Smaller

[Grant]

We found a dhil at the Laney flea market in Oakland yesterday. The Top is missing, but the rest is in bettter condition than any I brought back myself. Dagnabit, somebody scraped most of the char out of the inside and it doesn't smell like much. Paid $4.

[Ugaas Diini]

What you need a dhiil for? You making butter the somali way? Grant, have you ever had garoor milk?

[Grant]

Ugaas Diini,

I have several different kinds in a collection.

Is garoor anything like caano faadiiya?

[Ugaas Diini]

Spoiled milk......with sugar.

[The-Screw]

what is that?

[Grant]

Then the answer is yes!

[zulaika]

i had aged suusac(caano geel) @ a restaurant in Minneapolis last summer, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good, i drank so much of it till i got dizzy..like i was drunk camal.

[Grant]

I hope they had a handy musqul.

[AbdiWahab252]

Grant,

Is there a market for Somali curios ? I worked with this Somali NGO that worked with female artisans who produced aliindi (the colorful Somali linen cloth), stools, amber necklaces. They produced some excellent materials and I always thought of setting up a website to sell their stuff and contribue some of the proceeds to the charity organization and the female artisans.

[Grant]

Abdi,

I'm sure there is a market, but I haven't any idea how large it is or what type of pricing you might be able to get.

I think meerschaum pipes or even raw meerschaum or incense burners are saleable. Cloth definitely. Gumbiir, probably but less so. Where is the amber coming from?

Palmleaf mats and bebiis have always struck me as decorative and saleable.

Antiques of any kind. Ostrich shells.

[AbdiWahab252]

Amber comes from the Mudug coastline.

Thanks for the insight Grant.

With the passage of the AGOA Act, I could export them from Nairobi as "Kenyan" and not get charged any duties since Kenya is part of AGOA.

[kambuli]

Grant,

Garoor is yogurt, Ciir is buttermilk...etc

I am a collector of those things too.... A friend of mine told me that there is a store in Toronto that sells Jiimbaar...I hope you know the Jiimbaar... Also a friend of mine not have only the Dhiil but she has the "Culey"..

[Ugaas Diini]

Kambuli, do you know what ashuun is? I collect kaloorado myself.

[kambuli]

UD!!!!

What do you mean "do you know ashuun",

Not only I know but I drank water from it...The Aashuun which was smoked with Luubaan...The cold water...Wow...
I remember those tiny cariish rooms...Where the aashuun is blaced in the corner with the silver cup at the top..and the Digtoonow bed (Usually metal blue color)with the Shelesh bedsheet and the tiny table decorated with the utencils...also the blue Faynuus hanging in the middle of the room

Why kaloorado?

[Grant]

Abdi,

There has been a glut of amber on the market the last few years. Unless it has insect fossils or an unusual color the price probably won't be very high.

On the other hand, ethnic jewelry and especially African cloth are HOT items in the African-American community. Also used by designers for a more general market. I would expect it to fetch a GOOD price.

Kambuli,

I don't know either Jiimbaar or Culey, or at least not by those names. Please describe......