Aboo Feherd and Aboo Freharn were two old friends of Fawaz's father Aziz. The men lived next door to each other on the tel and Aboo Freharn was married to Aboo Feherd's sister and vise versa. Aboo Feherd was a short wiry man with an affable manner and his wife was tall, large in body with a deep, gruff voice. If she could, she would carry the woes of all her family and friends, as her heart was big enough to envelop them all. Aboo Freharn's physique resembled his sisters except for his low pitched, powerful, resounding voice. The two men were inseparable. They would visit Aziz and sit for hours reminiscing about the old days in Skelbieh and the hardships they endured.

For instance, they told me about the winter months that they spent on the tel in years gone by and the rats that were forced from the barren fields to search for food in the villagers' homes and how they used to visit at night and nibble on the inhabitant's toes. Aboo Freharn told me about how they would get snowed in and could not they leave their homes in the winter months except by walking from one neighbour's roof to another. He would have to shake his sheepskin cloak to rid it of lice. Life was much easier for them now, since those supposedly 'good old days' but they missed the love and support each family bestowed upon each other because without it, they may not have survived those grueling winter months.

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