arabic keyboards

None of the letters on arabic keyboards are in the same place. I don't know why; it's just that way.

This will be short.
Sam, thanks for taking care of the pipes, you are the bomb. I would kick an ape in the head for you anyday!!

Karen I am alive and having fun. It's hard to check email because of the windows mac thing.

Sara and Harley, thanks for the birthday wishes. I was happy to hear from you. How are the parents?

Catherine, I wish you could come here for lunch. The food is really good!

Matt, I'd also kick an ape for you. Say hi to Meg, Brant, and Forest.

This has been a good week so far. I am managing to have conversations using both the moroccan arabic to english and french to english phrase books. So far I know that Hadija's mom is not her mom. Sara is her sister, they live in Khenitra and have been at the hospital for 21 days. They have 6 sisters for sure. I am not sure about brothers, because we didn't get that far. Sara is 19 and weaves rugs for a living. She's a blast and way keen on trying to talk to me. I think what she really wants to know is why I don't cover my hair. I just don't have any of those words. Yesterday she wrote me something on paper, which I took to the home base for Mohammed to translate. It said, don't drink dirty water without boiling it first. Words to live by.

Fatima is eleven and so smart. She and Bessima line everyone else out when we play games. I was doing math problems with Fatima today and kept making them harder and harder because she was so good. We got to a point where Bob, my fellow volunteer had to tell me what number she was saying. Bob speaks french.