Update on Stuff

As I was writing the entry title, I just realized, while my father's favorite word is thing, "on the thing" is what he always says, mine must be stuff.

Whatever! Como se ya!

I haven't written in here at all lately, so I guess no one will really be reading this anyhow.

Well, about three weeks ago, Ibriham called us and said he had a friend from Africa coming to the states. We, of course, offered to put her up even though he would have to go back on the road for another thirty days.

Heidi(or Heddi, I haven't quite figured it out, as Ibriham is often hard to understand and lots of times he answers "yes" without completely comprehending the true meaning of the question...but I can't bitch, really, he speaks at least two more languages than I do). Anyhow, Heidi is a very sweet girl. She brought me a beautiful African blouse and skirt. I wore the skirt one day, and she was so pleased(as was I, cause it is really cool), but I had it turned the wrong way, so she giggle as she showed me how it was suppose to be worn. She also had come with lots of seasonings from their region(yummy), but sadly, her luggage was lost somewhere between Casa Blanca and New York. Supposedly, her father is very religious and (again unclear) may not be the head holy guy at the Mosque, but may be more like a Christian deacon. That is really unclear, because their holy men aren't taken care of like we take care of our pastors here. I mean, they provide for them, but not with money, instead with whatever their needs are...bag of rice, a lamb, etc. But he must be some sort of business man, because Ibriham says he has lots of money, but apparently, he's a frugal man. For instance, they didn't have a washer and dryer(yes, many Africans own these), but they had servents to do the washing for them. Heidi was the only girl in her family to go to college. She is very smart and had worked as not only a teacher, but later, a person in the school system who went into classes to monitor and report on other teachers.

I was a little concerned, because coming from such a religious family, I know how they feel about having dogs running around freely inside the house. They don't like it and dogs are considered very unclean. Ibriham had no problem with it, because he wants so badly to be American(and let's face it, he's far from being a strict muslim). And even though it sounds harsh, he said she'd have to deal with it because she was in America now. However, she was very kind and didn't act at all like it bothered her.

Unfortunately, Heidi spoke hardly any English. Communication with her was difficult to say the least, since the foreign language I know best is Spanish, not French. But we managed pretty well.

Initially, she was to stay with us for a month. This would completely immerse her in an English speaking enviroment, and in turn, force her to learn English quickly. But after only a week of being here, Ibriham's nephew found her a job at a McDonald's in Greensboro. Apparently, there is a huge African population from their country in the town, and Heidi has a lot of family there.

So off to Greensboro she went. I just called her tonight to see how she is doing. Unfortunately, since she lives with and around her people, she has not learned much more English and it was difficult to talk to her. I told her I'd give her another month to learn more English. I guess next time, I'll have to translate what I want to say to her in French and then repeat it in English, so maybe she can learn that way. Too bad my French pronounciation sucks. It's a hard language to get the nuances right. Their vowel sounds are killers and so foreign to either English or Spanish.

Next, I have to call my Mexican friend, Edith. She's starting a housecleaning business in town and needs some flyers made up. Even though my Spanish is better than my French, it's still pretty weak, so I'll probably end up talking mostly to her young daughter to get the details.

It is my opinion that every American should have at least one foreign friend. Only then can we see that we're really not that much different than everyone else, and maybe we'd get this chip off our shoulders. In the long run, many many lives could be saved.

But I won't go off on a political rant...lol...

Chick Flicks is rolling along smoothly, and we've already got some awesome stories for the next issue. Likewise, HeavyGlow is looking pretty awesome too. I'm pleased with the submissions we've been getting.

In about a month, I'll have to start pounding away at the pages.

On the homefront, Mark's business is close to launching. The web page looks great, and the ideas are truly evil genius(and funny as hell). I won't spoil it by going into specifics, but details will be coming soon. I'm hoping they'll be ready to go live by the end of July.

So, I guess that's about it for now...until next time, whenever that will be...stay glassy!