Unrest in Egypt

Just a few of the images I found on the internet of the demonstrations. The particular site I found these on is "http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/protest_spreads_in_the_middle.html". You can go here for more dramatic pictures.





Well, if any of you have been watching the news, you know what is going on here in Egypt, and in the Middle East. My husband has been predicting this would happen for a long time. Food prices are so outrageous, so many people can not find jobs, and wages are just unrealistically low. Can't say I blame the people here for the demonstrations. We cancelled school last Tuesday because it was known people were supposed to start protesting, but our principal had us come to school on Wednesday. We ended up sending everyone home early because the protests started again. Home again today (Thursday) because we just don't know what's going to happen. Friends of ours have said these demonstrations could go on for weeks. We'll see. For now, we are in a pretty quiet area. No demonstrations have taken place close to us. Just pray that everything will turn out for the best, and who really knows what that will be. Even if they topple the current government, things could get worse instead of better. So, for now, we are just trusting God for the outcome.

Learning Arabic Part 2

Two more examples of how the Arabic language can be used beautifully. I believe the top one says "I love Cairo", and the bottom one is the Lord's prayer again, and an example of how Arabic can be beautifully used.

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about learning Arabic. I talked about how hard it was to learn. Just thought I would write another one and show a few things that makes it different and harder than English.

First of all, not being exposed to a second language while growing up, you can imagine how surprised I was to find out that there are languages out there with words that have gender. In Arabic, words are either male or female. The way you can tell is there is an extra letter on the end of the feminine words. For example, the word for cat is "ota", with a long "o" sound. That "a" sound on the end is the clue that the word is feminine. The word for dog is "kelb", and since there is no "a" sound at the end, it is masculine. One thing that was so confusing to me at first, was I could not understand why there was not an Arabic word for the word "it". I started to understand later when I found out that things are referred to as either "he" or "she" instead of "it".

Another thing I found strange about Arabic is that words can be put together to make one long word. For example, if I were to say the sentence "I don't like her." (her referring to an object that is feminine), word by word the sentence would be "ana mish bahibha", but this can all be put into one word "mabahibhash". Learning how to say the negative form of past and present verbs is very difficult because this is the procedure used.

Now, even though there are strange things about the language, and even though it is so difficult to learn, it has been one of the greatest experiences and challenges of my life. Like I said in Part 1 of "Learning Arabic" I don't believe I will ever be totally fluent. I am happy to be able to communicate as well as I do, but given the chance, I would definately take more lessons.

Sorry for the delay!

I am sorry it has been a while since my last post. I really want to get back in the groove of posting every few days, but as you might guess, school started again. I am probably going to be taking a break from teaching here in about a week and a half, so hopefully I will be able to blog more. So, please be patient with me while I finish working. Just thought though, that I would post a couple pictures of me and my class. The little Sudanese boy in the front is not with us anymore, so we are down to four. One of the girls is Egyptian, and one is Brazilian. One of the boys is half Egyptian, half American, and the other is half Egyptian, half Phillipino. It has been fun teaching this group, but I am so ready to be a full-time housewife again, and my family is ready for it too.