Dari distractions

I know just enough Dari to fool people into believing that I understand. This has led to a few awkward and costly misunderstandings the last few days.

First the cook showed up on our doorstep with ‘supplies’ (probably yogurt, hot peppers, coriander and limes). The guard who responded to the bell at the outside gate (we never open our own door here) walked over to me and mentioned that the cook was at the door. With the clarity of hindsight I now know he said also that he had things with him, but at the time I didn’t understand. So, in my best Dari, I told the guard that the cook should go home since it was a public holiday (Mujahideen day). And so the guard sent the cook home, with all his supplies, including the yogurt we so badly wanted.

Early this morning the electricity went off. After having the generator on for most of the day we noticed that no one else in the neighbourhood had generators going. I called the other guesthouses and they too had town electricity. It took us about 5 hours to figure out what the guard had probably told us early in the morning. I had understood the words for burned and broken but not what these adjectives referred to. When the night guard arrived at the end of the day he figured out that the fuse, outside our house in a box on the street, had been burned (aha). It was fixed within minutes.

With the generator humming in the background, we had a quiet day at home, satying put all day except for a brief outing into town to complete our shopping for gifts to take to Holland. It was a domestic sort of day. I finished a baby sweater, for the next kid that comes along, baked cookies in an oven I don’t understand (cookies did not come out well), washed the dishes, and studied Dari.

For lunch I prepared a Lebanese meal which we shared with the guard and drivers. I think they liked the mana’ishe (wild thyme pizza). Axel did an after action review with himself about the writing workshop he designed for five SOLA students and conducted on Wednesday. I think he has found his calling! He also downloaded ‘House’ (14 hours of download for one episode!), which we will watch tonight over our Pad Thai dinner – the cook is out so we get to choose what we eat. One more day off, tomorrow, will complete this very long weekend, that started on Wednesday and end on Sunday, only 2 days before our take off to Holland.