Unexpected . . .

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been delinquent about posting recently. I've had guests in town for the last few days, and have been spending most of my time with them.

Okay, story of the day . . .

One of the first cultural lessons I learned here was this, "don't talk to women." In this culture, men and women don't interact much in public. If they're a relative that's a little different, but for the most part men talk to men and women talk to women. Business interactions don't conform to that rule, but pretty much everything else does.

I live in the second story of a three story building. The first floor is a fish shop, the second floor is my flat, and the third floor and roof are unfinished. Recently the landlord has started finishing the third floor and building another flat on the roof so that they can live in the building. They have four daughters who are going to live in the flat above us, and the parents are going to live on the roof. With all of the construction going on lately, there's always people coming and going. We changed the lock to the front door when we moved in and gave the landlord a copy of it. But he keeps losing his key, which leads to people banging on the door really loud, wanting us to let them in so they can come work on the flat upstairs.

Okay, I know that was a long setup to the story, but here it goes. Yesterday I was sitting around the house when I heard someone banging on the door downstairs. I knew the landlord was upstairs, so I didn't answer the door. I assumed the landlord would let them in. Well, he didn't, and the banging kept going and going. I finally opened the door of my flat and told whoever was downstairs to wait a minute. I put on my sandals and went downstairs, and discovered a teenage girl standing at my door, crying. I didn't know if she was crying because I'd yelled at her to wait a minute or because of some other reason. I really wasn't sure what to do. I've so gotten used to not talking to women, and now I have one crying on my doorstep.

I invited her in, but she wouldn't come in. But she wouldn't leave either. So I finally went upstairs and found my landlord's wife. I told her that there was a young lady crying downstairs and I wasn't sure what to do about it. She sent down her oldest daughter to sort things out, and when I went downstairs to leave about 15 minutes later they were talking in the stairwell. All in all, kind of an awkward moment.

Backfired!

Hey guys,

Just a funny story from tonight. I was hanging out with a friend at a coffee shop. He invited me back to his place, so we went and hung out for a while. I fixed his computer, then we ate dinner. After dinner his sons came out and started hanging out with us.

The youngest son, who's about five years old was making lots of noise. So his father yelled, "ibn el kelb" which means, "son of a dog." I thought about it for a minute then told my friend, "but he's your kid. Are you a dog?" He thought about it for a minute then said, "no, that's not a good insult." It made me laugh for a few minutes.

Okay, that's it for tonight . . .

Celebrity sighting!!!

Hey guys,

I had a friend over for tea tonight. He brought his brother along with him. I'd met his brother once before, but this time I was struck by a resemblance to Dave Chappelle. I took a picture to put alongside a picture of Dave Chappelle, but the resemblance wasn't quite as strong in the photo as it was in person. But I thought you guys might enjoy it.

Oh, after a staggering one vote in the book selection, I decided to read "The Blood of Abraham" by Jimmy Carter. One more vote came in after I'd started reading. Sorry Eddy & Jess . . .

-Dave

Interactive Fizziness . . .

Hey guys,

Okay, the picture on the right is from some random packet I bought at a pharmacy a couple days ago. I was visiting a friend who works there, and some guy came in and asked for this thing. I didn't really know what it was. But when I asked my friend about it, he gave me one and assured me that it was good for me. So today I decided to try it, just for fun. It was kind of like drinking a fizzy banana. I know, it tasted as strange as it sounds. I can't say I feel any healthier than I did half an hour ago, but it was a fun experience.

You know those "choose your own adventure" books they used to have when I was a kid? Well, maybe they still have them. I don't really know. Anyway, you read the first page, then at the end of that page you're faced with a decision. If you choose one thing you flip to a certain page and keep reading. If you choose the other option you turn to a different page. It keeps going like that, with lots of possible endings.

I thought it might be fun to try something like that on my blog. I finished reading Emma by Jane Austen this morning, and I've got a few books laying around the flat that I'm planning to read. I thought it would be fun to post the options online and have y'all choose what I read next. If you want to vote, post a comment with your recommendation. I promise I won't start reading for a couple of days to give you guys time to vote. Sound like fun? Okay, here's the options:

1 - The Essential Theodore Roosevelt: Great Speeches and Writings of America's Most Dynamic President.

2 - The Blood of Abraham: Insights into the Middle East, by Jimmy Carter

3 - Children of the Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz

4 - Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence

5 - The Woodlanders, by Thomas Hardy

That's it. But no fair recommending books that aren't on the list. You've got to pick one of those, okay?

Only one for you . . .

Hey guys,

I had an interesting experience tonight. I've got a friend here who often asks me to write text messages and emails for him in English. He'll tell me what he wants to say, then I translate and send it for him. For as long as I've known him he's been corresponding with a young German lady that he met last year. They both seemed pretty serious about each other, so I didn't mind translating for him.

Last night I was hanging out with him at a local coffee shop and he said that he'd gotten engaged. I asked him if it was to the German girl and he said no. He said it was to some local girl that he's known for a really long time.

Anyway, tonight he came by my flat and wanted to check his email. He had two emails from the German girl, who is still very much in love with him. He asked me to write her an email back and I told him no. I told him that since he'd just gotten engaged to another girl, I wasn't going to keep writing emails to this girl for him. He asked why, so we had a good, long chat about how you treat women; especially western women.

He thanked me for talking to him about it, then left. I'm not sure what the long-term effects of that conversation are going to be. In Islam a man is allowed to have four wives. So just because he gets married doesn't necessarily mean that he has to stop looking. But, I'm going to hope that my friend took the lesson.

Okay guys, that's it for now . . .

Architectural quiz

Okay guys,

In this picture I've carefully hidden an architectural defect. See if you can find it . . .

Got it? Yes, it's the second story door with no balcony or stairs. I chatted with the guy who's going to live in it and he told me that he would just bring a ladder whenever he wants to go upstairs. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure the neighborhood kids are going to steal his ladder at the first opportunity.

Today was a good day. I got to visit with a friend that I haven't had a chance to talk to in a few months. We played dominoes at the local coffee shop, then he came over and we ate dinner together. It was a good chance to reconnect with him.

Right now I'm reading a Jane Austen novel in my free time. It's fun, but I find myself getting angry at the 18th century English aristocracy. I guess it's okay though. It's not like I'm ever going to meet one of them and be bitter.

Okay, that's it for now. Hope you're doing well . . .

-Dave

What ???? Hello????

Hey guys,

I think tonight marks the first time that I intentionally went to an Egyptian wedding. I've been ambushed into a few, but tonight was the first time that I actually made plans to go to one. You know, it was actually pretty fun. I saw some people that I recognized, which made it even more fun.

For the last few days I've been hanging out with a couple of deaf-mute guys. I met one a couple weeks ago, and he's been introducing me to his friends. Between a mixture of charades, sign language, lip-reading, and note-writing we manage to make ourselves understood to each other. Today I learned the signs for male and female. The sign for a guy is to twirl your fingers at the side of your mouth, right where your mustache would be if you had one. The symbol for a gal is to make the shape of an hourglass with your hands.

Tonight I ended up having tea with a group of guys, some of whom can speak and some of whom can't. I kept forgetting who could hear and who couldn't. So it made for several funny situations. I'd talk to people who couldn't understand me. Then I'd try to sign a question to someone else, and they'd start talking to me. Kind of funny . . .

One of my friends invited me to the wedding, so I decided I would go with him. Since we communicate mostly by sign language and lip reading, it didn't matter how loud the music was at the wedding. We were still able to communicate.

Okay guys, that's it for now. Hope y'all are doing well . . .

-Dave