On Friday I was startled to see our guard, sitting as usual at the edge of the road under the shade tree on his woven mat, surrounded by heaps and piles of...wool? I waved at him and we exchanged our standard Arabic/English greetings (I don't understand his Arabic and he doesn't understand my English) and then he went back to...carding the wool? The next day he spent the whole day, still sitting on the mat under the tree, sewing and stuffing a mattress.