I Wish I had Some Skills
You may think that Des Moines, Iowa is not exciting, but that's where you'd be wrong. Last week I had a little adventure that may prove to be the highlight of my summer and I just thought I should bring it to you here in living color.
So I wanna learn how to speak Arabic, and more specifically Egyptian Arabic (gosh, Mrs. Christensen I am sooo jealous of your skills). So I started doing some cruising on the the internet looking for Egyptians in Des Moines (other than my own parents). As I searched, and searched I came across a man who is from Cairo, he is the new imam at the Des Moines Mosque. Now, what I read about him was an article in the Des Moines Register that discussed allegations of terrorist activity (he lived in Florida for 18 years prior to his recent move to Iowa). Largely disregarding the article, I decided the best course of action would be to call him. So I did. Of course I got nothing accomplished on the phone he wanted me to come in the next day, and enshallah, he could work something out.
That very next day I went to the mosque in town that I didn't even know existed. It is a sad, little run down brick building nestled in a back neighborhood of Des Moines away from any kind of traffic. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was slightly dissapointed to find no minarets or even one little "allah akbar" call to prayer. Anyway, I went in, slipped off my flip-flops and stepped onto the carpet that has that same nasty feeling of thousands of feet that you feel all over the Middle East. And I loved it. I wandered around until I found a secretarial looking character. I sat down and began to discuss with her my desire for language skills. She just really wanted to teach me to read the Qu'ran. She asked me if I was a Muslim, I said no and she promptly asked if I wanted to be. I said no thank you. There's evangelism for you. After some discussion with Sarah, my new secretary friend I was directed to the imam's wife. She was dressed in a black hagib and matching gallabayah, and she was so sweet. She said that she would give me lessons and then we talked about Egypt for about 20 minutes. Maybe she thought I was crazy, because I was so enthusiastic just to be talking to her. Anyway I'm still working out the details, but I am really looking forward to this new chapter in my summer.
In other news, Rachel Corrie's, (she is the girl that got run over by an Israeli bulldozer a few years ago in Palestine--she was trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes) grandparents are coming to the mosque on Tuesday. My sister, Barrett's roommate, and I plan on going. That was an very poorly constructed sentence. Asfa.
Okay ladies and gentlemen that's about all I have for you to know about my life. I miss you and think of you often. Be thinking of plans for New Years in Iowa, okay?
So I wanna learn how to speak Arabic, and more specifically Egyptian Arabic (gosh, Mrs. Christensen I am sooo jealous of your skills). So I started doing some cruising on the the internet looking for Egyptians in Des Moines (other than my own parents). As I searched, and searched I came across a man who is from Cairo, he is the new imam at the Des Moines Mosque. Now, what I read about him was an article in the Des Moines Register that discussed allegations of terrorist activity (he lived in Florida for 18 years prior to his recent move to Iowa). Largely disregarding the article, I decided the best course of action would be to call him. So I did. Of course I got nothing accomplished on the phone he wanted me to come in the next day, and enshallah, he could work something out.
That very next day I went to the mosque in town that I didn't even know existed. It is a sad, little run down brick building nestled in a back neighborhood of Des Moines away from any kind of traffic. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was slightly dissapointed to find no minarets or even one little "allah akbar" call to prayer. Anyway, I went in, slipped off my flip-flops and stepped onto the carpet that has that same nasty feeling of thousands of feet that you feel all over the Middle East. And I loved it. I wandered around until I found a secretarial looking character. I sat down and began to discuss with her my desire for language skills. She just really wanted to teach me to read the Qu'ran. She asked me if I was a Muslim, I said no and she promptly asked if I wanted to be. I said no thank you. There's evangelism for you. After some discussion with Sarah, my new secretary friend I was directed to the imam's wife. She was dressed in a black hagib and matching gallabayah, and she was so sweet. She said that she would give me lessons and then we talked about Egypt for about 20 minutes. Maybe she thought I was crazy, because I was so enthusiastic just to be talking to her. Anyway I'm still working out the details, but I am really looking forward to this new chapter in my summer.
In other news, Rachel Corrie's, (she is the girl that got run over by an Israeli bulldozer a few years ago in Palestine--she was trying to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes) grandparents are coming to the mosque on Tuesday. My sister, Barrett's roommate, and I plan on going. That was an very poorly constructed sentence. Asfa.
Okay ladies and gentlemen that's about all I have for you to know about my life. I miss you and think of you often. Be thinking of plans for New Years in Iowa, okay?
posted by Marcia M. Ghali at ٧:٠٥ م
1 Comments:
marcia, i'm jealous. i went to the mosque in orange city because i also want to learn more arabic. however, turns out that the imam AND his wife are Dutch and speaky no arabic...then i woke up
later ya'll
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