Life so far

Well this past month I've been busy doing a variety of thing from medical stuff for the team to looking for a job in the city. Cooking from scratch, gardening, and sewing are a few things I've been doing as well. Over the next few weeks I thought I'd post a little about life here in J and what it looks like overall. 

I thought I'd start with a little about the Arabic language and some of the things I've found so far. One of the big differences is that the Arabic I spoke in D is different than the Arabic spoken here in J. I don't know how many times now I've used my Arabic and have it still get lost in translation even though it worked just fine in D last year. That being said, the little Arabic I do know has left quite an impression on some people in the market. Last week when wandering around the market looking for fabric some guy called "kawaja" (white person) and then turned to his friend and told him in Arabic that I am kawaja that speaks Arabic. While the locals may think I know lots of Arabic, the reality is I don't know much at all. I can get by in the market but beyond that I really struggle which is why I was happy to find a Christian bookstore that has lots of books in Arabic. I was able to find an Arabic/English Bible for less than $20US (which is a great deal considering the prices I saw while back in Canada) and even found the Arabic version of some books that I read as a child. I bought both with the plan to slowly do backtranslation and learn the words. This worked well when I was learning Spanish but I expect Arabic to be more of a challenge as even the letters are different.

In the mean time I've been using my Arabic/English Bible when I'm out and about as its easier to share with others who don't know the English but know the Arabic. With both languages side by side it works well for the most part except when I start looking up things and go to the wrong end of the book (Arabic is read right to left thus Genesis is where I would expect Revelations to be and so forth). Its taking me a bit to get used to but I'm sure I will.

anyone remember the books on the right? This one is the story of Martha and Mary, I have the Ruth one (and a few others) at home back in Canada.