Another excellent cleanser and toner is aloe gel or fresh aloe vera cactus pulp. Cut off 1 inch of aloe vera rib, slit open and rub yellowish pulp directly on the skin.

A miraculous desert rain. We slog, dripping, into As Safi, Jordan. We drive the sodden mules through wet streets. To the town’s only landmark. To the “Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth.”

The baby gurgled with delight.

Then, one evening I arrived home to find him sitting atop the doorway transom like Poe’s raven, quothing his usual owl equivalent of “I’m starving!” while roundabout the furniture displayed a day’s worth of fumets and splashy excrement.