Language Oops of the Week [2]

*disclaimer: this post not for the weak stomached ones.*


Yesterday, while practicing our Arabic in a Salon de The (similar to a coffee shop in the States, except here some of the "coffees" are for men only but Salon de The means both men and women can frequent) Beth wanted to ask the waiter for another cup of coffee. We know the words for "I want a cup of coffee" but not for "another." So our teacher quickly told her the word to say. So Beth thought she was saying, "I want another cup of coffee," but when everyone started laughing we realized something hadn't come out correctly. By pronouncing the word with an "ah" sound at the beginning instead of an "O" sound, she had actually said, "I want a cup of coffee go to the bathroom." This certainly justified all the laughter. Instead of asking for another cup of coffee, she had accidentally commanded the waiter to go to the bathroom. Some words we will certainly never forget.

Shek Shouka

Shek Shouka: A dish best served sparingly.


Shek Shouka is one of the first Arabic words I was able to commit to memory; partially because the meaning is so appropriate and mostly because I love the way it sounds. It's one of the few "easy" words to say in Arabic, and it's easy to "master" (I should probably discuss this idea of having mastered anything in Arabic with my teacher before saying that...). There are two meanings for the word in our country: a traditional dish and a mess of good things.


Even before we began our language study, friends had shared this word with us. They explained that sometimes, instead of referring to food, the phrase is used to express that things are kinda a mess or it's a bunch of good things all jumbled together. Since then, we have often used this word with our language teacher to express that we are learning a lot of good things but sometimes all the Arabic and English and Arabic verb tenses and Arabic culture and Arabic blessings just get jumbled up in our head.


We use the word so often in class that when I heard the word used while eating at a traditional restaurant, it felt out of context. But I quickly recovered from that slight shock and moved into a mini-celebration over having correctly heard and understood a word in Arabic! We celebrate the small victories over here.


"The Restaurant of the Lonely Woman," as it is literally translated, is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is located in the heart of the medina (which is like the city within the city, surrounded by the old city walls that look like a castle. There is little room for cars, although a few motorcycles manage to get through the narrow old stone streets. The medina is definitely something you'll have to see when you come!) and we always attend with a group. Beth once compared it to going to Cpaw's. It's true that everyone comes in and goes behind the counter to see what's cooking on the stove and to hug the old ladies that cook. Some of our friends even bring their own bread because they don't like the bread that's served there. It's quite entertaining. We always eat traditional food there, in the traditional way (with your fingers or bread, and without napkins) and this last visit we finally got to try the shek shouka.

Shek Shouka! The first one is shek shouka wa lham (with meat) and the one with fries is shek shouka with veggies.

Interesting things to note in this picture: the bread on the table. This is a traditional bread they either call taboona or hobza khayel, I forget (my brain is a shek shouka after all). Either way, it is wonderful and I love it lots more than the more common skinny, hard bread that is easier to find. The shek shouka tasted a little like a marinara sauce you might use over spaghetti, that's about the only resemblance. I really loved mine, Beth wasn't so crazy about hers. The vegetable shek shouka also had a runny egg in it, so I think that might have something to do with her not loving it.


So this is shek shouka and this is what my brain feels like everyday after 4 hours of studying Arabic...a hot mess. =) Thankful that He can make something beautiful and useful out of something like this.

Sweeeeet!

I'm sure it will come with no surprise to most of you that I have been diligent to discover the traditional and common desserts our new country has to offer. The ice cream here is much more available than I'd imagined and so far just as good as what you may buy in the States (of course, nothing can even come close to Bop's frozen custard or homemade ice cream). They do have some interesting flavors though... Beth tried some bright pink ice cream flavor the other day. I'm pretty sure they called it "chewingum", so I'll let you make your own judgement on that one. haha.

However, you can never (in two weeks) go wrong with candied peanuts. Here they prepared them street side and you can buy them hot and fresh. Yum! There are delicious, and at least the peanut is semi-healthy, right?!? They are also rather cheap.

The street side cart where the peanuts are candied.

Traditional sweets (front to back): candied peanuts (I love them), baklava (quite similar to what you might find in the States), mushy-gooey-pistachio stuff?!??, and "caak" (not to be confused with a donut, it is bread-like on the inside but the outside is like an almond candying of sorts).

Language Oops of the Week [1]

From guest author: Beth


So, we were going to this production on Saturday in front of the court house-which turned out to start 2 hours later than supposed to be, but was surprisingly really good. Well, we had picked up some candied peanuts and after eating them were quite thirsty. We went to this little store that has just an open front. Kind of like a concession stand. We wanted a coke and had decided to share one. Since we were sharing, we wanted the bottle coke not the can. Well, there are NO lines whatsoever so everyone is just pressed against the counter and by the way the counter is right at our eye level. So, we finally make it to the front of the counter and are trying to put our money up there so that he will take our order, however, there are all these arm pits and hands reaching over us that are handing their money in and getting what they want. So, we decided that we just needed to speak up and say what we wanted. We know the word for coke, bottle, big, small. So I figured this would be easy. I could see the can cokes and the bottle cokes. Brandi first said coca daboose (bottle) and he brought this huge thing of water. We said La (no). Coca Cabirra (big). Well, he returned with a 2 liter!!! Oh, well. We walked around with the 2 liter the rest of the time. We almost drank it all in this 2 hours of waiting for the production to begin.

Our african apartment (in progress)

We moved into our new apartment a little over a week ago, but we are still waiting on a few "additions." We got a washing machine last week and installed a few lines to hang clothes in one of the bedrooms (instead of taking all our wet laundry four floors up to the roof). And they brought an oven...it's a convection oven barely larger than a small microwave, but hey, it heats the food. =)


We're still waiting on another "closet"/wardrobe and a table that the chairs fit under, but everyday someone tells us that it will be here "tomorrow." It's become quite hilarious, because apparently everything will happen tomorrow, or maybe they should just say, "Not today." haha! I love it.

Our bedroom, my what beautiful quilts it has! ;)

The "unpacking room". Haha. We dumped everything in here because neither of us brought queen sized sheets and we are still waiting for another closet for the other room and didn't want our stuff to be in the way when they brought that. Hopefully it will come...tomorrow. ;)

I know most of you probably aren't interested in the bathroom but ours is so cool, I just had to show it. Our new washing machine that we are VERY thankful for! We just found the brown storage unit today. It's all coming together!

Our kitchen! Don't miss the little oven! It's quite cute.
We're hoping to get more shelving...of course, tomorrow.

Our luxurious living room. It's a little messy, but that's what makes it feel at home for us, I guess. We're actually very blessed to have a nice tv, so we can watch all kinds of shows...in Arabic. Haha!

The Golden Mixer

The Golden Mixer

Two days after we arrived in our new country, a friend took us shopping for some household necessities in one of the largest stores to be found in the city. The store was really nice, but still no larger than most Wal-marts. 

As we enter the building we find the appliances and electronics to the left. This should have been our first hint: household appliances and electronics shelved in the same area. As we scanned the merchandise, our friend stepped out for a minute. In the mean time, Beth found a kitchen mixer that we need. Many random things like this can be found here but are generally pricer than we are accustomed to in the States. As she picks up the box to inspect the item, an employee immediately comes from the counter and takes it from her, speaking rapidly in Arabic or French (it's hard to tell the difference here). 

At the counter, Beth tries to explain that she was planning to ask her friend about the mixer before she made a decision on purchasing it. Thankfully our friend returns and explains that items such as mixers must be tested and registered if you want the guarantee. The clerk proceeds to fill out paperwork ON A MIXER, pulls everything out of the box, and plugs it in and tests it for us to see before we can pay and get our receipt and continue the remainder of our shopping. So the first item we purchase takes over 20 minutes. When we leave we have to register the item with the security guard and Beth signed her name in the guarantee book. 

Needless to say, the experience was nothing short of stressful, but we have a mixer that might as well be made out of gold. And we learned a lesson in grocery store shopping: You are not in America, welcome to Africa.