Learning Arabic

So I studied Spanish, attempted Italian, tripped through Portuguese and now have found myself in a place where people 1^st speak tribal languages, 2^nd Arabic and 3^rd British English (which is a different language).  So I started my Arabic lessons.  And its hard learning how to write in the opposite direction, learn an entire new alphabet that changes depending where the letter is in the word, and make sounds that I seem incapable of doing.  But I’m enjoying it and my homework takes hours!

The Arabic they speak in South Sudan is 'Juba Arabic' a slang of Classical Arabic that has some funny english things.  One I really like is when people say 'I am going to the store' they say "Now, now I go to the store".  Motorcycle is boda-boda and the market is the Konya-Konya.  But I digress.  

My teacher is from Lebanon but is married to a South Sudanese man, who fled the country while working for USAID 20 years ago in Juba when every single one of his coworkers was shot.  They came back a few years ago with many others to help rebuild their country.  He is heading up the archives so people do not forget their history here and the other evening they took me to see the University which the North took during the civil war, to prevent learning and instead turned it into a prison and battle grounds. 

The live outside of town and among teaching she grows loofahs…I always thought they came from the sea, but it turns out they look like a giant cucumber and when they dry, they are a loofah. 

Alive loofah

Peel and ready to shower loofah

So besides learning the alphabet, and learning some important history, I learned to say 'I want ice cream'  أريد الآيس كريم which I hope comes in handy in Cairo, because it’s a bit of an unrealistic statement here.