madrassa

so i'm on vacation for two weeks. while is desperately need the sleep, i get fidgety when there's nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do. i'd been thinking about heading out to Arab area of the city to get my hair cut (badly needed!) and to check out the shopping and planned to stop by the mosque to ask about learning Arabic, as i figured there would be more native speakers there than at the other mosques around town. so i picked up a couple of cute scarves, had a nice halal lunch, and wandered over to the mosque, where i was told the sheikh would show up fairly soon.

there is a little room on the second floor of the mosque where the sheikh sits behind a big desk. there is a collection of chairs around the room where mostly women and children sit, moving from seat to seat as their friends come in, mingling. the sheikh speaks no English and i can only say my prayers so when it's my turn one of the women has to translate (all of the women speak at least three languages, two of which are Arabic and English, the third may be French but there are several i can't identify.) meanwhile, the children come up in little groups to recite and the sheikh corrects them without ever looking up from the copy book where he's writing out the alphabet for me or some simple words that at this point are only a collection of sounds for me to practice.

then i take up one of the little desks and practice making the sounds, writing the letters. i try to pick out the sounds from the buzz of Arabic around me, to pick out letters and sometimes words i recognize in the signs around the classroom. the women help me with the letters i say funny, making the sounds over and over while i watch their mouths, listening to me try again and again. i've got two weeks and i'm serious-- i have two weeks to learn to make the sounds, to learn which ones go with which letters-- two weeks before i am swallowed up by the hospital with its endless hallways lined with lights that never go off, with its rooms that fill again the moment they empty, with its waiting room spilling out into the street...