Greetings to you all in Moroccan Arabic. I'm sure there are keys in the font section to correctly spell the words, but I am a humble beginner and not an expert. I had my first language lesson today after volunteering and I'm not sure which was more overwhelming. Not so surprisingly I now know more Arabic than French. My pronunciation of each language, however, is equally poor, but I remain undaunted and am having a lot of fun.
My volunteer assignment is at a children's hospital working in the asthma ward. I was pretty intimidated by this at first because I'm not around them much. So Kadija left me wide eyed there this morning to sort it out. And after a bit the kids started coming out of their rooms to hang out. I have a table with benches in the hallway where I can lay out my things and we did a lot of coloring and drawing. Kadija taught me how to say what's your name, how old are you, nice to meet you, and come sit down. Ayeman is my first friend and best buddy so far. I don't know how old he is, because even though I can ask the question, I didn't understand the response until this afternoon. My guess is he's about 4 and completely cool because he can write his name in Arabic and Francais. I was impressive in return, because I had brought my name in Arabic on a piece of paper and happened to randomly learn the word for apricot which is mismash. So began our journey into knocking down the language barrier of fruit, while striking up friendship.
There is so much to say I could blab for hours, but the essentials are my assignment is great, the other volunteers are so fun, and the food is yummy. In fact I had the best eggplant ever last night. Which always amazes me when someone can do something to food I didn't know was possible. If anyone wants to give me feedback about what you want to hear about that would be cool, I feel like there is so much to tell. For example, today I used a toilet which had no toilet. Imagine my surprise at that one, but I did get it figured out. And on that I will say Nt lagau ghdda.
My volunteer assignment is at a children's hospital working in the asthma ward. I was pretty intimidated by this at first because I'm not around them much. So Kadija left me wide eyed there this morning to sort it out. And after a bit the kids started coming out of their rooms to hang out. I have a table with benches in the hallway where I can lay out my things and we did a lot of coloring and drawing. Kadija taught me how to say what's your name, how old are you, nice to meet you, and come sit down. Ayeman is my first friend and best buddy so far. I don't know how old he is, because even though I can ask the question, I didn't understand the response until this afternoon. My guess is he's about 4 and completely cool because he can write his name in Arabic and Francais. I was impressive in return, because I had brought my name in Arabic on a piece of paper and happened to randomly learn the word for apricot which is mismash. So began our journey into knocking down the language barrier of fruit, while striking up friendship.
There is so much to say I could blab for hours, but the essentials are my assignment is great, the other volunteers are so fun, and the food is yummy. In fact I had the best eggplant ever last night. Which always amazes me when someone can do something to food I didn't know was possible. If anyone wants to give me feedback about what you want to hear about that would be cool, I feel like there is so much to tell. For example, today I used a toilet which had no toilet. Imagine my surprise at that one, but I did get it figured out. And on that I will say Nt lagau ghdda.
3 comments:
this is awesome! keep 'em coming. everything is good and interesting. i'm so glad you're living there, what you learn will be immeasurable and unblogable. but it is great to know what you're up to.
Yeay you made it!!! I'm glad you're at it already! I hope the trip went smoothly. All the critters miss you and so do I! Have fun squattin' :)
Angie! I sent away for travel/tour info and was reading up on Morocco so I can ask you questions about certain sites later on. I am thrilled for you and hope you have a ball!
You're in my thoughts and prayers,
Becky Wyatt
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