She never fails to greet us warmly, in an intimate manner, as though we are quite personal friends. And, I suppose, in a way, we are. From the time we first met when she initiated close contact to the present, she knows some details of our lives, through enquiry, and we know some of hers, although we are less likely to enquire than she is.

She is far more open than we are, perhaps it represents a social part of her culture. We tend to be more reserved in that sense, although we are open to those such as she, rare though they are in our lives, who have no ulterior motive other than friendship.

Her smile is wide and pleasant although there remains an air of gravity about her. She has alive, warm, but tired brown eyes, not entirely unlike our own. And very high cheekbones, a common physical characteristic of Somalians.

There is an easy familiarity between us of equals in society - as it should be, but she still refers to me as "madam", on occasion, and that creates an aura of separation which has me feeling quite uncomfortable. She never fails to enquire delicately about a situation in our family that has been of ongoing concern to us.

We visited the Sally Ann earlier this week, which is where she works. Where she has worked for well over a decade. She lives quite far from this area and travels a long time and distance on public transit, back and forth to her place of employment. She could, because she has seniority, ask for a transfer to another branch, closer to where she lives, but she will not, she says, because she is accustomed to working here, and prefers to continue to do so.

Her husband is out of work and looking for employment somewhere, anywhere, to be busy and to continue to earn a living. Theirs will be a quiet holiday time, this year. Not that this particular holiday has any significance to her.

But they are troubled about the chaos in their homeland, the continuing drought leading to food shortages and dreadful famine. And the violence that continues to conflict her country. One of her husband's cousins, she confided, has been kidnapped.

They have managed to get together the required amount to ransom him - her large extended family. And they hope that they will be successful in trading his life for the sum that they have gathered to rescue him.