101 …

… is both the number of blog posts to date and the population of our village once we moved in.

We have been told that moving from double to triple digits changes the status of the village in some bureaucratic sense bringing more money or kudos (and probably paperwork) or something. This may explain why the village mukhtar was so happy to see us, stopping his car in the middle of the road outside the house and welcoming us to his village.

Mukhtar, for those with enquiring minds, is the term given to the head of the village.

Here it is an elected position, and one which brings great pride. Our mukhtar lightly dropped into the conversation one day that his father had held the position many years ago. So far we haven’t established if the current incumbent has a son who might hope to hold the position in turn. In our travels so far we haven’t come across any references to a female mukhtar.

The word itself is Arabic, yet another reminder of what a melting pot this island is, in part due to its position as such an important meeting point for three continents.

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