First, my totally epic adventure that I forgot to blog about. Alright, so, my daily schedule includes spending about a little over an hour teaching or helping teach swim lessons to all grades. Some days are better than others, depending on behaviors, attitudes, language barriers, and just moods, to be honest. Plus, I've been asked to stay until all the girls are dressed, so we know they're going home with clothes on. Apparently, there was a first grade boy that couldn't find his pants one day, so he just went home without them. Since then, I've been asked to either watch the boys or the girls. Typically, the other teachers and parents flock to the boys, so I stick to the girls, thankfully. This does mean a lot of yelling, "Binat...yallah!", which basically means "Come on, girls!" They usually giggle a lot at me when they hear me yelling, but they usually hurry up. I'm giving you this long introduction, filled with random extraneous details, as my family would all testify is the annoying sign of a Meredith-story, because it should explain that by the time I've spent an entire day with middle school English classes or kindergarten kids, followed by swim lessons, followed by herding my "binat" out of the locker room, I'm pretty beat. I usually go and check in at the office after swimming to see if they need any emails, documents, etc, done in English, and then I head home. Phew! Finally, it's time for my epic story.
Mom, don't be worried. So, I came in the locker room after swimming several days ago, changed out of my swimsuit, herded my "binat", and started to get my stuff together. My bookbag and other belongings usually stay in one of the lockers. I reached for my bookbag and I thought I saw something move. I'm not usually one to get squeamish over bugs or creepy crawly things, but something sent of my danger signals here. I pulled my bookbag out and looked inside. I couldn't see anything, but I was sure something was in there. I was the only one left in the locker room, so I started taking out my stuff. I saw what I had seen initially! It was this creepy centipede thing that was probably five to six inches long, and brownish. It crawled into the seam of my bag. I shook my bookbag onto the floor, hoping to dislodge this creepy thing from my bag, but it refused to come out. I couldn't even see it in there at this point! One of the cleaning ladies came in and looked annoyed at me, because I had dumped my bag on the floor. I used my limited Arabic to try and explain what was going on. Naela had about the same English as I had Arabic, which isn't much. I should also explain that our very kind and extremely intelligent Arabic teacher has yet to teach us how to say, "Help me...there's a creepy centipede in my bag." This resulted in a lot of sign language. She really didn't understand. I relied on my Pictionary skills at this point, and pulled out some paper and a pen. I started drawing this creepy centipede, and before I could even finish, she started squealing and jumping around! She looked terrified!! Again, I'm not afraid of bugs, but this reaction was not your normal anti-spider reaction. She kept asking me "Wen??? Wen???", which means 'where.' I showed her how big it was with my fingers and explained that I didn't know where it went. I continued to shake my bag, while she looked in all the corners of the locker room. Finally, when I flipped my bag inside out, I saw that the creepy centipede was in the bottom. She squealed some more, and we carried it out of the locker room, where we ran into the man I used to teach swim lessons with (he quit recently...I'm not sure why). His name is Nour, and he looked at us with this, "What do you crazy women want?" expression. We showed him what was in my bag, and HE looked panicked! He carefully took my bag outside and dumped it on the ground. Creepy centipede fell out, and the guy stomped on it. He smeared it into the sidewalk too. He has very limited English too, so he was talking with the cleaning lady in Arabic, and they were both panicking and seemed very upset. It was one of those moments, where I knew the gist of what they were saying without the language, based on the body language. I did, however, feel like I was missing a few key points; such as, what the heck was this thing?! I asked them both what it was in Arabic, and he said, "Number 44." I looked confused, so he said, "Barath." He used some sign language, but grabbed one of the other guys to translate for me. When Nour told Musa, in Arabic, what had just happened, Musa looked upset and started scratching himself. Naela and Nour were also doing scratching themselves. I touched Musa's arm and asked him to translate in English. He yelled for Mary, who also works in the Wellness Center, and has excellent English. He translated, along with Nour and Naela interjecting their panicked sentences. Mary jumped up on the desk and had the SAME shocked look on her face. This has been about 15 minutes and four people that have had the same reaction to this centipede, and not a single one of them has told me what the heck was going on. Finally, I asked Mary if she could tell me what it was in English. She also told me that it was a "Number 44" or a "Barath." She also told me that had it bitten me, it's poison would have caused me to die within 20 minutes. She asked me at this point if I had been bitten, and I assured her no. I was given the advice to throw away my bookbag. I'd like to say that I listened, but I've had that bookbag since like, 9th grade, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm still itching when I talk about it, and it happened almost two weeks ago. So, yes, this was my epic adventure. I almost died. I only read about scorpions before coming here and I haven't seen any of those yet. I'd like to tell you that I looked up exactly what it was online, but I saw enough random pictures of poisonous giant centipedes to last me a lifetime! One of my friends works at an Environmental Education Center here, so I'll get the scoop and update later. It was epic though.
It also rained yesterday; as in, it poured. It sprinkled a little today. I think this means we're starting the rainy season. It's only slightly rained twice in the whole time I've been here, before yesterday that is. It will be interesting to see more rain!
I've been sick all week, so I don't really have any amazing adventures to tell. I did spend most of yesterday at the one pastor's house, learning how to make Palestinian salads with his wife. Salads are pretty prominent here, as far as food goes. It's not the lettuce salad I'm used to, but this is stuff like tabouli, baba ganouj, etc. I wish I could tell you the names of everything I learned how to make, but I'll just have to show you what they are when I come home. It was really nice to spend time with his family. They have a month-old baby that doesn't hurt either! :) It's nice to feel welcomed by different families into their home. Another random note, I found out that meat is considered a special thing you give to visitors. Even the poorest family will work to give visitors meat. I can't say that I've seen that specifically, but I know we've been served meat everywhere, and meat is very expensive here!
After the day with the family, I came home and did my normal email check. I check my emails, blog for comments (PS...the comments are slacking, everybody! :) Kidding!), and yes, I check Facebook. It was really strange, because I'm half-way around the world, and in a matter of 30 seconds, I found out that one of my college roommates gave birth to her first child and also that one of my coworkers from camp lost his grandfather. It was this really surreal feeling to be so far away, but yet to know that one life passed away as another began. I don't want it to seem that I'm implying one replaces another, by ANY means. It was just a strange sensation to be celebrating the birth of one and mourning the loss of another, from a very long plane ride away. I guess I would just like to take a moment here to then say that I'm praying for all of you. Those celebrating newborn Caius James and those mourning Vernon Adams Sr. Peace. Salaam.
With that being said, I wish peace upon all of you. Hug someone you love today. In fact, hug them everyday.
Much love,
Meredith
1 comment:
I read this aloud to mom - we were both laughing and then grossed out!
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