Language Learning One Calamity at a Time

This has been a good week. Yesterday we went swimming with a couple of our neighbors. Zetta was showing off in her baby float sporting her big girl bikini. She sure got plenty of smiles and kisses. Have I mentioned passing up a baby on the street here without kissing him or her is pretty much unheard of? There must be some folk belief that it is good luck or something.

I have discovered the secret to learning a foreign language: CHAOS. Broken things used to stress me out here. My command of Arabic isn't really quite there when catastrophe strikes. However, lately I have been dealing with them a lot easier. I have realized they are a great way to talk to people you would never talk to and also learn words that you would probably forget in a heartbeat otherwise.

I mentioned a flat tire last week. Well it turns out the spare had a hole in it as well. This meant going to the local Shell station and asking someone to fix it. Words learned while doing this: teqba (hole) and bnu (tire). It turns out most of the tires were pretty worn. Who do you call? Saaid is getting them all replaced for us.

In other news the past couple days we have woke up to a kitchen floor covered with water. I waited until today to call Mohammed the landlord because I didn't want to bother him on the weekend. Words mastered due to kitchen crisis: cuizina (kitchen), zjaaba (pipe), zjfina (sink), arrD (floor), plumbi (plumber).

From now on instead of shaking my fists at the gods of chaos when calamity strikes, I will simply thank god for a chance to learn some keywords.

salaam alikum