Eddy has been trying for several weeks now to invite a local tribal guy, Mohammed, over to our house for English lessons. With our poor Arabic (still no verbs) and his equally small knowledge of English, coupled with general cultural misunderstandings, he had yet to show up at our house. That is until a few nights ago. Our meeting time came and went with no Mohammed. I started cooking supper and a German friend of ours, Chris, stopped by unexpectedly and decided to stay. No more than 10 minutes later, there was Mohammed! And thank goodness Chris was there as well, as his Arabic is far better, having lived here for 2 years. The guys sat in our one "cooler" area and chatted about life, work and the idea of learning English. Eddy started teaching him with the cards we use for Arabic and he seemed to learn quickly. I finished supper preparations and I joined them for the meal.
Culturally, it is rare that men and women eat together; especially in this tribe. But our new friend seemed undaunted by my presence and we all chatted comfortably, eager to learn about the others' culture. After Mohammed left, Chris explained that here it is common for a guest to stay the night; and it seemed from his discussions with Mohammed that that had been his original intent! Woops-how unprepared and unaware we were! Chris went on to say that Mohammed probably has other friends from his tribe in the area that he could stay with.
While we would like to continue to meet with him, the instability of our visa situation makes setting up lesson times difficult. He is out of work right now and therefore does not have a mobile for us to contact him. We can only hope and pray that we will cross paths again...
Photos: A window near our house... One of many "new" cars still driven here... some scarves at the market.
No comments:
Post a Comment