This was a nice 'advice' post on a PC Mali blog

http://wakingupinmali.blogspot.com/2011/01/best-advice-ive-ever-received-my-advice.html

My Mudir for the SOS village told me a joke that I wanted to share.

One difference between Arabic/Tashleheet and English is that in English our salutations are questions :

how are you? how's your family? are you alright?

For them, its more like declarative with no really questions or answers.

Eh! Addi! Tarsa! La bas! Bixihir! Kif dayr! thenna! mitanit! hamdullah! hamdullah laybarfik!

Therefore you can pick and choose and just shout out the ones you feel like saying at that moment, and noone waiting to hear a certain response. That's fun because it means you dont have to pause, but just say 8 or 9 of them and they're talking simultaneously with you, saying their eight or nine, and its only awkward if you look at them and listen like you're expecting some kind of response. So ideally, you get two people doing this at the same time, full force, not listening to each other because listening is not the point!

Person one: Eh! Addi! Tarsa! La bas! Bixihir! Kif Tarsa! La bas! Bixihir!dayr! thenna! mitanit! hamdullah! hamdullah laybarfik!

Person two: Eh! Said! Tarsa! thenna! mitanit! hamdullah! hamdullah laybarfik! La bas! Bixihir! Kif dayr! thenna! mitanit! hamdullah! hamdullah laybarfik!

Simultaneously.

But the joke comes in when a person learns English the dialogue method, without anyone explaining what the words literally mean. So, two kids talking, one says : 'how are you' is like 'bixihir', kif kif. 'Mitanit' is like 'ca va?'

So the joke is, a Moroccan student is trying to speak English, and it's something like this:

A: Hello?

M: Hello how are you

A: Im fine. And you?

M: Im fine. And you!

A: Im fine.

M: And you!

: p

This came from Time's site : its a person that live-blogged 3 different events at the same time, and the result reads like a strange postmodern novel about ADD, national values and ennui- possibly by David Foster Wallace?-- sadly, not to be.



In my mind, I can imagine CNN having put the 3 live feeds side by side on a tv screen. Maybe its a taste of things to come?


75 minutes. Now it is time to rehash the old debates about Mitt Romney’s efforts to reform health care in Massachusetts. Nothing new is said. But as Romney defends himself, the Miss Universe pageant really kicks into high gear. Miss France, Miss Kosovo, Miss Columbia and Miss China all move on to the next round. And to add insult to injury, the Patriots score another touchdown. It’s now 21 to 14. Good game.


76 minutes. Perry, once again, attacks Romney’s health care efforts. Miss Angola and Miss Australia move on to the next round.

77 minutes. Perry again defends himself. Miss Netherlands is moving on.

78 minutes. Blitzer asks Paul who should pay to take care of a 30-year-old man who goes into a coma without health insurance. “What he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself,” Paul says. That would be tough to do in a coma. Miss Ukraine. Miss Panama. Miss Costa Rica. Miss Philippines — they are moving on.

80 minutes. Bachmann really wants in on this conversation. She pulls a Huntsman and tries a dual attack on Romney and Perry for being wishy-washy on repealing ObamaCare. “If you believe that states can have it and that it’s constitutional, you’re not committed,” she says. “If you’ve implemented this in your state, you’re not committed. I’m committed.”



82 minutes. Cut to commercial. Miss Universe has a montage of all the ladies shopping and dancing in various locals around Brazil. The Dolphins just kicked a field goal, making it 21 to 17. 3:36 left in the third quarter. Really good game.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/09/13/what-you-missed-while-not-watching-last-nights-tea-party-debate/#ixzz1ATocoIlb

ANYWAY, congratulations (apparently) go to : Mitt Romney, the Patriots and ANGOLA and Senhorinha Lopes

Favorite moments from the past week

--dance party on our last night together as a staj, the 44 of us left from the original 66, and the best moment of that was dancing the twist to Little Richard


--afterwards, Eric H appeared and thanked me several times for having recommended INFINITE JEST to him - he appeared as if he hadn't slept since he'd finished reading it, and talked about his newfound need to 'read it 8 times' so its lessons soak in ever deeper. Especially for a book that can be so NOT wonderful to some people, to share it with someone that likes it as much as me is GREAT ;)

--the man at the Velada on his day off recognized me in the Dar B3ida (Arabic for Casablanca) area at a bus stop in L'Oasis. Good eyes, especially since I was in my jilaba and turban! About that, Sam said: You look like the real thing, a convert.

--Similarly, it was nice to sit during my physical with Dr Taofik and feel powerful, accomplished, that of a person who has lived in a part of Morocco that many urban Moroccans would be unable to handle. Cara's Casa friends likewise said: Ya'll are crazy to do that! And you don't get a car? How do you get around?? Isn't it hot? There's no (X), there's no (Y). :§ And to now be among those that have 'done it', and so be able to intimidate the softies in the cities without even needing to say words feels good.



--having the thought: never again, except for rare exceptions* will I ever allow myself to work for a place that requires 'samples'of all my bodily fluids before I am allowed to enter it and again before I leave it. It felt good to take my last one to the laboratoire d'analyses and now I'll likely not have to go back (except in the instance that I'm diagnosed with schistosomiasis, which has a strong likelihood of happening).

--Reunited with my guitar Betsy, and came up with a great new chord full of raw energy and an ambiguous mood : C/F#.

--watching tears come to Adriana's eyes after our goodbye and our many promises ''I'd rather meet you in Colombia than in South Carolina, I think!'' with Peggy C saying ''Heck, I wanna come!'' In my book, tears of sadness can mean that you either did something really wrong or that you did something right.

--Books: Getting sucked into Isabel Allende's ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA, especially sinc it is a reminder of the primary influences on my life, the primacy of Latin America in my heart and that, as good as North Africa is, it's a poingant and important, but ultimately a passing stage in my life. The same goes during other moments of the week -- Ali Records giving me a copy of FREEDOM, the new Franzen marvel (30 pages in and Im in love with the book already)


--Going to the beach with Jeff and Will, qnd two Moroccan lifeguards maybe saved my life when I got pulled past a long row of 6 foot waves by a ripcurl. I wish I could have taken them out for tea!
We followed that up with a jam session on the bus, sharing Will's yukele, writing a song in Darija on the spot, and entertaining Moroccan people all at the same time.

--Fast Pizza four times, once alone, once time each with Sarah, Caytlin, alone and with Catherine B.

--Goodbye hour with Amina -- each person was told to give her one of the roses from the table and tell a story of why Amina made such a valuable impact on our service. On my turn, I reached to give her the whole pile, since I wish I could. But I sat them down, picked a nice one and then whispered my tribute into her ear rather than sharing it out loud.

--Going to the Chinese embassy with Sam and Pete. Id not even thought of getting a visa for there, so I was glad to have run into them and to have similar plans as they.


--This photo:



--Adding old country-director David L into our final group photo, then having four others come up to me saying they'd missed the photo shoot and needed me to photoshop them into it, too.

If you need a little more DL in your life, here's the green-screen version

Good looking man!
Use with caution and respect, or we'll come beat you up, wherever you is.

--At the Last Supper, I was voted: ''Most likely to end up serving jail time after stalking Shakira and/or Sade.'' Fair enough, then on the one where we all voted, me and Ewald got voted most likely to end up homeless. ''That's OK, if that happens we'll come back to L-Mgrib and Islam will take care of us!'' For my acceptance speech, I remarked : If this is the future awaiting me back there, jail time then homelessness, I think I'd rather just stay put here!'' If I could do it again, I wouldn't have said anything but would have started singing : ''there's a fi-iy-re burnin deep in my soul''. That'd have been classy.

--buying a ticket to Mali, then ordering a bird guide, ''Birds of West Africa'' -- hope it gets to N'Kob by then. It's not a ticket home, but... I figure Ive earned it, a chance to regroup and go to the Other Africa that's on the side of my backyard. I might even get to Timbuktu.... :) though I heard it's heyday was 150 years ago.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 Royal Air Maroc 523 Economy | Boeing 737-700 Passenger (73G) | 3hr 35min | 1434 miles
Depart: 9:25pm Casablanca, Morocco Casablanca Mohamed V (CMN)
Arrive: 1:00am Bamako, Mali Bamako (BKO)

--waking up naturally everyday for the last month at 7. Its been a very good positive difference in my life!

*NASA, is the only one I can think of, and only if I get a COOL name for my position, like ''Galaxy Defender Superior Maximus'' or somesuch.

'Til next time! Keep it classy, Dallas.