Towards the end of work, my favorite person in Jordan, Mohammed (the 'bubbs' guy), invited me to his home in Mufrak for the rest of the day. Mufrak is where I usually stop to change busses on my way to Amman, so it worked out perfect. I went home with him and met his family. I met his mother and father briefly, and then chilled with him and his brothers for a while. We looked at pictures, they wanted to practice English (I want to ramble about this later, don't let me forget), we listened to music, and then we ate a delicious lunch of mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, cucumber, and pita. Sound like a weird combination? It was. But it was a delicious weird combination. After lunch, Mohammed asked me if I wanted to sleep. I told him no, that I was OK. However, he kept insisting, and I figured out that he wanted to sleep, and thus, I took a nap too. I didn't sleep for too long, but he slept for a while, so I just laid there thinking for a bit. I also flipped through their Arabic/English dictionary, just for fun. It had some really useful words and phrases, and other's that were totally random. Examples include: "Does flying on a plane scare you?" "Do you love me?" and the word "quill". Yeah, weird. Once Mohammed was awake again, we embarked on a 4 hour journey of trying to communicate across the language barrier. I've worked with him long enough that he knows how to speak slow and clear enough for me to understand him, and we use a lot of hand gesturing as well. He's a really smart guy; he's finishing up his undergraduate in law this month. But towards the end our discussion started to wane (largely due to my attention span's limit having been reached. All day is a long time for only Arabic). Luckily, our shifty co-worker showed up to have dinner with us, and so my responsibility for conversation was reduced. We had mansaf for dinner (that's 2 nights in a row, baby!) which was, of course, delicious! Then we chilled and talked for a while before we went on a walk. All 3 of us walked around Mufrak at roughly 1am, and I was surprised by how many people were still out. Our other friend is a really cool guy, albeit kinda shifty, and has OK English. He wanted to talk in English with me to practice. He has a lot of misconceptions about America, which I think is pretty common. I won't go into the details, and the conversation always remained friendly and positive, but I was able to clear up some things that he didn't quite understand. Mohammed and I dropped him off at his home and walked back to find beds made up for us in the sitting room. I was really tired, so I feel asleep pretty quickly.
I had an awesome time with Mohammed and his family. Like I said, he's probably my best friend in Jordan. He's super nice, very sincere, extremely hospitable, and has started to get protective of me, his "American brother". While at his house, I had to be careful where I looked. If I looked up at the ceiling, he'd start asking me if I wanted the fan on. If I looked at my glass, he'd refill it with more orange soda for me. Etc. Etc. At work he's gotten protective of me if anyone starts to tease me or if they seem to be trying to take advantage of me (usually in the form of my phone).
This morning I kept going in and out of consciousness until Mohammed's alarm clock went off at 6:30. I got up right away, but he was still groggy and generally out of it. However, as soon as he saw that I was up, he jumped up and quite enthusiastically offered me breakfast: "Milk?!?!" How could I say no to that? Haha. So we had a small breakfast of warm spiced milk with biscotti-type stuff, and then it was off to the bus station. I headed to Amman and he headed in to work.
So there it is, my sleepover in Mufrak!
Now, onto my tangent! Remember that I said that Mohammed and his brothers really wanted to practice English with me? That didn't bother me, because I know Mohammed really well and he does a lot for me. We do a lot of Arabic/English vocabulary practice at work. What does bother me is that everyone asks me to come tutor them in English. On an average day in Sabha, 3-4 people will stop me on the street, skim over the initial pleasantries, and start trying to schedule my English tutoring services. Little do they know that in my entire life I've taught 3 English classes. Maybe I should let on how inexperienced I am. But in any case, that's seen as my main asset here, my English. On the one hand, I feel bad. Their English proficiency determines their future opportunities; without good English they won't be able to progress very far in their education or their careers. So I want to be able to help everyone. But on the other hand, it makes me apprehensive about meeting new people, because half of them seem only interested in my English. It's annoying to me to have everyone expecting me to come at their whims. I'd like to help everyone; however, I can't. I don't have the time or the resources, or the skills. I am not a miracle English teacher; up until this point I've proved to be a shabby one at best. Rather, I'm a nerdy American kid who's in love with the Arabic language and wants to become better at it. In order to justify BYU sending me here, I'm teaching some English along the way. So what I've determined to do is to help my friends with English as we're hanging out (if they want), but I never schedule anything. That way, I feel like the expectations are more realistic, I can still focus on my Arabic, and it's a more personal thing.
Thanks for bearing with me through that tangent. Y'all are troopers. Talk to you soon!
يرمي
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