What Did You Say???

Arabic language learning has been slowly paying off. We can successfully (or somewhat successfully) tell people our names, children's names and ages, where we are from and where we live. We can even make simple purchases in the market using numbers and asking how much something costs. As I was on a walk last week I met three ladies who only spoke Arabic. This was as far as the conversation got. And then after a few seconds of awkward silence, they then began saying, "Nancy? Nancy?" I wasn't sure what this word meant. Were they asking if my name was Nancy? I guess Mandy can sound a little like Nancy. Or were they trying to ask me something else? So the best I can do is smile and shrug my shoulders. I don't yet know how to say sorry in Arabic, but maybe I should learn so I can apologize when I don't understand something.

This week has been draining so far. Kevin was sick on Monday and Karis has had a fever and possibly pink eye, so she has been joining us for Arabic lesson. (She will definitely learn Arabic better than me, so it will be fun to have a dual language child to translate for us. Now I will know what the Hispanic ladies who would come to my yard sales in Texas felt like.) We met a friendly neighbor, who is actually from Bolivia, and she was so nice to make some delicious soup for our sick family. I knew I would like the soup (chicken, carrots, squash and onions), but I had no idea how much Karis would like it. She has been eating it like it's the best thing she's ever put in her mouth. So I will definitely get that recipe.

Karis is so cute and growing so much. Sometimes Kevin and Eliana like to play wrestle (which usually just consists of Kevin laying on the floor and Eliana crawling on him), and Karis has now joined in the fun. She'll crawl up to him and start hitting him with her tiny little hand and try to crawl over him. It's so cute to see how much she enjoys this play time. She seems so big already.