UNCLASSIFIED
I've made some local friends since I've been here. Apparently since
we're friendly types of folks 'round these here parts, both the laundry
locals and the DFAC locals have decided that we should learn Dari.
Anyone who knows my enjoyment of languages can imagine my delight at
this idea! I've started a notebook and can carry on VERY simple
conversations that don't require much back and forth (at ALL). There are
three guys teaching me when I drop off my laundry, but one of them would
actually be a very good instructor. He slows things down and enunciates
so I can write down my phonetic idea of how it should be spelled. Plus
he can read and write English so he can see if I write something down
incorrectly (phonetically). Apparently things are pronounced differently
or colloquially depending on where someone is from (shocking, right?)
which has proved to be interesting (read: frustrating) when I FINALLY
think I know how to pronounce a word and then someone from the other
place says it differently. Alas, I'm making progress and this has really
been a highlight of my time here since I never learned ANY Arabic in
Iraq. It can be a bit tiresome when I get off shift and have to turn in
laundry and just want to go to bed but have to listen through 20 new
words or phrases until they're satisfied that I've repeated and written
enough down to study for my next trip to laundry. But in all, it's been
an excellent experience. Also, the guy at the DFAC has sort of adopted
us and talks to us about his family. He's 22 and has been working on the
base for 10 years. That's right, his parents died and he had two sisters
that he had to take care of so the Americans gave him a job at 12. He
worked with us and finished school. His older sister is now married with
a child and his younger sister is in school in Kabul. He tells us all
the time that we're his good friends and that we(Americans) are good
people. He also is in denial about the inevitable leaving of Afghanistan
by the Americans. He's so sweet and tiny that I just wish I could
protect him from anything else happening bad in his life. He has
literally never known a non-war-torn Afghanistan.
Back to lighter topics... the other highlight of my time here: MY
shower. This was mentioned a few blogs ago, but I think it's worth
mentioning again because it is THAT amazing. For awhile, it was my sole
thing-to-look-forward-to... mostly because our heater wasn't working
properly during the coldest days of winter (y'all know how I HATE to be
cold) and there's only one shower that gets hot and has excellent water
pressure. It actually got to a point one day when someone was hogging
the shower for WAY longer than she should have been and I was
considering spraying water on her towel to teach her a lesson (don't
worry; I didn't)!
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