nuns

You know what I love about the nuns? Sometimes they ... (wait. clarification, it's not the only thing i love about the nuns, but it is one of those little things) ... Sometimes they burp during adoration.

I was talking to Arwa today during class, we got started talking about the Bible, so I brought mine down and was showing her Old Testament, New Testament, Gospels. She was surprised that the entire book wasn't just JESUS! I think she felt a little superior that the Quran is entirely directly from GOD! but at the same time, she wasn't condescending. She also was amazingly diplomatic when it came to Jesus. According to Islam, Jesus didn't rise from the dead -- I think maybe he didn't die on the cross according to Islam. I don't remember rightly. But instead of "after he died" she was able to use "after he ascended" or at least that's the translation I'm using with hand motions and all. It was just nice to know that I have a teacher who is openminded, at least in words.

In other news, I bought a new abaya. Diana looked at it before I bought it and agrees that it is beautiful. I'm not sure why I decided I needed it a month before I left, but I did.

a list of vocabulary i am becoming acquainted with through my arabic readings (in english)

thick
thick
tight
thin
thin
transparent
translucent
loose
cover
covering
to cover
cover
cover
to reveal
embellishments
colorful


seriously, i'm enjoying it.

women in islam

I have two hours of class a day right? Doesn't sound like much, but it really can be a lot. I restarted class at the beginning of the week. On Saturday I go to class. My teacher & I do what we generally have been doing. First hour is Al-Kitaab and the second hour is a reading exercise. Well, it's supposed to be reading. I generally get bored with the story about a sentence in and then just go as fast as possible. screw comprehension or vocabulary additions. We got through the first page of a story on Sindibad. And I began stalling. Bringing up just about any subject I could think of to NOT move on to the next page. It's soul crushing.

Finally, I looked at her and I was like "I don't want to read this." (I should probably note that I've gone through about three books, reading one story or so from all of them and finally just being like "No, I don't want to do this.") Seriously, most of the time the stories are okay enough, but I'm not that interested and they are too difficult to do in class with my teacher who doesn't speak very much English. So I ask her if we can read something about Islam or life in Yemen. Because this stuff interests me more than stories that I've heard before in English. She sounds excited and tells me that she will bring something in the next day.

So Sunday comes around and she's brought books from her house. Which is cool. We look through them, and I run upstairs to show her this random book that I bought in a bookstore because it says "to muslim women" on the cover, with a picture of a woman in hijab. She looks at it, reads part of it and is like "yeah, it's good" so I decide to use that one, because then I can feel free to write in it and all that jazz.

And thus we start! We get about a line in and I'm like WHOA! This is amazingly difficult. Especially since (i repeat) my teacher does not speak English very much. So, I stop her, and we agree that I will look work on it at home with the dictionary and come back to class and we can talk about it. She suggests I try to get through the entire section on hijab, about a page and a half. I think "Sure. It might be alot, but I'll get as far as I can, maybe half-way or something"

I go home and start in with the dictionary. After working for probably three or four hours, I am four lines in. I haven't even finished the first paragraph. On top of that, the subject keeps changing back and forth. So, I give up for the evening.

I would like to note that even though it was difficult and a bit frustrating, I was holding up pretty well. I looked up all but maybe 10 words from those four lines and I mostly found all of them (Arabic dictionaries are harder than European languages, I swear)

I think my teacher was a little disappointed in how far I got, but we worked through the rest of the paragraph together and then I went and got it translated with the dictionary. It has some great vocabulary. Though I got a little frustrated when I looked up this word and the dictionary told me it meant "to look up alphabetically" and I was trying so hard to figure out how that fit into the sentence. Trying trying, and I get to class, where my teacher is like "No! That's a name of Satan!" OH! and now the sentences sense!

And suddenly I realized how long this post was. I guess I'll leave it just as suddenly.

too much time with the catholics?

So, I have a tendency to talk about church-y jesus-y things with the foreigners here, right? And thus they find out I'm going to mass. Some of them are Catholics themselves and are like "I really should know where the church is." Some of them are not but think "Damn, it would be totally hilarious to go to mass in Yemen" and decide they want to go with me. And I take them. (for those who might be disappointed in my consent to the latter, EVERYONE I've taken with my has always been respectable. [Besides, going to mass in Yemen is totally hilarious. I mean, it's Yemen.])

Anyway, back to the story. In my time here, I've cycled many people through the Catholic church here. Today, I ended up taking my two house mates. (Though really, I have a hard time saying that I take them to church. Generally word gets around that I go to Mass and they ask if they can go with me. I'm going anyway, so whatev. come one come all. Besides, it makes dealing with the debab drivers easier if there are more people.)

Wait... where was I? Oh yeah, taking my house mates to church. So, they went with me and afterwards, one of the nuns stops me.

nun & dana:
nun: Did you bring your friends with you?
dana: Oh, yeah. I guess.
nun: Maybe you will be a missionary...
dana: I think I would need to become Catholic first.
nun: Oh, are you interested in becoming Catholic?
dana: Uh. not really.
nun: maybe you will. God knows when you will become a Catholic.
dana: insha'allah.

***

the last line was kind of a joke. Though I don't think she got it. insha'allah means "if God wills" and I generally say it to the children if they try to do the conversion speech on me. I generally mean it as an "I will only convert if God literally hits me on the head and says 'be Muslim'" Even then I would have doubts.

So, what I'm saying is that ALL the Cathoics think I will convert. But I don't.

The end.

i want nachos like whoa.

'om sayeed

We have an old man who lives in our building, 'om sayeed. He's rather adorable, as old men are, but really, I don't think he's all there. The other day, after I had come home from Ethiopia and everyone else in my house had left for home or gone on this trip to the Red Sea coast, I came in the building. 'Om Sayeed was sitting in his little room by the door and looking at this piece of bread. When I went in, he handed the bread to me. I was like "for me?" he nodded in agreement. Rather than try to politely refuse, I thought the easiest solution would be to take the bread. "shokran, 'om sayeed, shokran"

And I thought "That's weird. Also what is up his nose? It kinda looks like he shoved some bread up there." and promptly forgot. The next day, I come in the house and he hands me this really large bag of loh. (Loh is a type of slightly bitter bread, like Ethiopian injera) "oh, thank you very much, 'om sayeed" now I'm a little weirded out and start wondering if I need to talk to the director about this.

Thankfully (for me), the girls on the Red Sea trip came back early. Apparently he's been doing that for a while. So maybe it's an Eid thing...

yet another conversation.

I'm pretty sure this was not just random.

isaac: All of the Catholics think you're going to convert to Catholicism.

dana: Not all of them! Diana doesn't!

isaac: Yeah, she does.

dana: NO!

i: Yeah she does.

d: NO! Really? But I don't want to.

i: Well, I don't think you will because you really don't want to, though I don't understand why you don't want to.

d: You know, Merton was totally right -- all protestants have a distrust of catholics, it's part of their religious upbringing.


Okay, so I go to mass, but only once a week. And I go to evening prayer with the nuns, but again, only once a week. And besides. The nuns are amazingly beautiful, you'd want to go to evening prayer with them as well. And I still don't want to be Catholic.

winter?

I'm back from Ethiopia, what a wonderful trip!

It gets dark about an hour earlier here than in Ethiopia, and that combined with the colder weather is making my body feel like it is the middle of winter. All I want is to curl up in a blanket and hibernate for a while. We have this week off of class for eid, so that might be more feasible than it really should be.

ticket reconfirm.

The other day, Henry & I went back to Ethiopian Airlines to confirm our tickets. While I was there, I asked about carry-on restrictions.

dana: Are there any restrictions for what I can bring on the plane?
salesman: You are not going to the US. Bring whatever. You can bring your sandwich.

So, sandwiches it is! I assume that means my swiss army knife and all the liquid soaps i can fit are good to go as well.

two conversations.

some time last week, a conversation with my teacher.

d: yemeni men are ugly
a: No! Not all Yemeni men. Maybe the ones around here, but there are good looking ones as well. Do you want to see a picture of my husband?
d: yeah
a: you think he is ugly.
d: no. but why do Yemeni men have this horrible mustache?
a: men must wear a mustache.
d: why?
a: otherwise they will look like women!
d: You only think that because all the women hear wear face veils and you've forgotten what women look like.

and then this week:
a: when do you go to Ethiopia?
d: next week.
a: oh, you will stand out among the Ethiopians because you are so white, and they are so black.
d. yeah probably.
a: when you come back., you will think Yemeni Men are handsome because they are not as black as Ethiopians.

Kawkab's Mother.

So, Sophia gave me a bag of things to give to Kawkab before she left and yesterday evening as I was entering the internet diwan building, I saw a woman (in niqaab) standing in the doorway of her house. So I think to myself "OH! I can give it to her NOW!" I grab the bag and take it over there, the woman in niqaab is looking in the door, waiting and I'm standing behind her. She turns around, I scare the bajesus out of her. Turns out it IS KAWKAB! I hand her the bag and she is like "Are you busy now? Would you like to come with us Samia's house?" I know Samia, she speaks wonderful English and I'm really not all that busy, so I'm like "Sure"

So we go, and I stay for a while. Best moment of the evening: (arabic in italics)

Samia's mother : Dana, do you speak Arabic?
(simultaneously)
dana: a little.
Kawkab's Mother : NO!

(bold is incomprehensible dialect)
I'm pretty sure after that is an explanatory "every time I try to talk to her in the street, she never understands me! NEVER! I always have to find someone to translate for her! ALWAYS!"

That's just conjecture based on personal experience and how emphatic her "NO!" was because I never understand her talking, she always has to find a 'translator' for us.

But I really like Kawkab's mother (honestly, I have no idea what her name is) She's always very friendly, always tries to talk to me in the street. Once, when I was at her house, I was sitting in Kawkab's room, but she was out in the house, getting ready for noon prayers. Kawkab's mother sneaks into the room and starts digging through Kawkabs plethora of purses. She kept making the "shhh, quiet" noise and motion. Finally she found Kawkab's wallet where she took out all the pictures and showed them too me, giving me names and relationships in this hush-hush voice. It was ADORABLE. Seriously.

stupid shopkeeper.

(arabic in italics)

d: i want a big water
stupid shopkeeper: one hundred ... (proceeds to pull out coins for one hundred forty riyal)
d: uh, no. fifty.
stupid guy sitting outside: sixty
d: no, fifty
sgso: arabs pay fifty, english pay sixty
d: bullshit. bye.

Ramadan Kareem!

Happy Ramadan. Ramadan has fallen, and I'm about to see my first night of it. I was talking to my teacher Wednesday about fasting in Ramadan and Lent, the differences and similarities. Later on, I was talking to one of my flatmates, and I think I am noticing more and more the differences. I mean, Happy Ramadan. No one would ever ever say "Happy Lent" it's not a "happy" time. It leads to good things and celebration afterwards is happy, Happy Easter! no doubt, but Ramadan is a happy time. Every night is filled with breaking the fast and merriment (you know, or so I'm told) Things shut down during the day. While people are fasting, I think it is actually very different from Christian liturgical fasting.

I don't know what that means, but I will think about it more.

Sophia's last day

sophia (via phone): could you go to the pharmacy and pick up a syringe to apply the henna with?
dana : yeah sure.

dana (in pharmacy) : Can I get a syringe?
pharmacist: What size? Three? Five?
dana: Uh... I don't know... big.
ed (to me): dana, you sound like a druggie.
pharmacist: dermal or intermuscular?
dana: i have no idea... the biggest.
pharmacist: I think maybe you aren't using this for it's intended purposes...

ed and i are cracking up at this point. al-akbar. the biggest.

class

So, yesterday my teacher and I put aside the reading book for the second hour and talked for a while. We had a pretty good conversation about hijab. an excerpt: arabic in italics

A: But Christians wear the veil!
d: um...
A: I saw it on tv!
d: arwa, you shouldn't believe everything you see on tv.
A: no. I saw women on tv wearing the veil! (begins drawing picture)
d: well some people do, but ... it's different
A: (finishes picture -- of nun)
d: OH!! okay, but very few, those are special people -- nuns
A: yeah nuns (it should be noted that the root of nun and monk is also "to terrorize")
A: they are very Christian, you are just a little bit Christian.
d: wow.


I suppose in terms of me v nuns I am indeed "Christian qaleela" but in comparison to the unvowed world, I probably hold my own.

sounds amazing.

So, I'm better yo. and seriously craving the haram goodness of a totinos pepperoni dollar pizza with dr. pepper.

dana is

sick. seriously. got the works, stomach, fever, ect. not the funnest thing ever.

a simple list of things i love

(edited and reposted from facebook)

josh.
alias.
osama.
salaam.
cheese.
tall socks.
rachel ray.
alphabets.
the adhan.
my mother.
old people.
butt books.
bob marley.
jesus kitsch.
john wesley.
blue october.
the grimmies.
ordinary time.
surat al-fatiha.
white russians.
regina spektor.
women in hijab.
the middle east.
religious theory.
episcopal liturgy.
nazarene hymns.
elementary math.
the social gospel.
al-lugha al-arabia.
news anchors' ties.
regaining my dialect.
finding english books.
general tso's chicken.
pants-less wonder-day.
burton, who is amazing.
cowboys with cellphones.
things mother kathy says.
being a second floor whore.
josh hugs during the peace.
guy-with-a-guitar type music.

can't get the nuns off my mind.

So, I did go to mass this morning, and I'm glad I did, it was the feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who is the patron saint of the Missionaries of Charity (you know, the ones we have here) and all the nuns were there, several have been gone for quite a while on retreats and such -- there are seven in total). There were also quite a few Indians there as well. Afterwards they had a reception, and I was quiet and awkward like usual, though I really should talk to the priest about communion. Because I want it.

And then I took a four hour nap and listened to some of the podcasts I've downloaded recently. And then a group of us went out to Indian food. It was pretty tasty.

The End.