Across the Brooklyn Bridge

I called my family in Palestine today .
"Marhaba! Kefal Haal?" Hello...how are you! I asked.
My niece 'N' is not familiar enough yet with the sound of my voice over the phone so she sounded a bit confused.
"Marjaba, al hamdullilah," she replied.
There was a pause.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!"
"Ana Farid!" I said.
I could hear a twinkle and excitement in her voice.
"Ahhh!!!," she said again as I heard her announce to everyone in the room with her that it was me on the phone.

It was my first phone call to them since I started taking an Arabic Level I class in September.

"Kulu shay tamam? (everything is good?") I asked her.
"Yaaa! Kulu shay tamam. Everything is fine!" she said with a laugh.
I gave her all I had in terms of what I've learned so far and I could hear she was delighted. She put my sister 'M' on the phone and we too spoke in Arabic using what I've learned thus far. She too was delighted. This was our first real conversation with each other without the use of an interpreter since we met in August.

I then spoke with my other niece who was equally as excited to converse with me with the bit of Arabic I'm able to muster up. It may not have been the most intellectual of conversations but it certainly was exciting for all of us.

Posted by Alif on Wednesday, October 13, 2004 at 10:30 PM | Permalink