Ashley's Arabian Adventure

Permission to Speak Freely

It's been a long time since I have been a part of an American fellowship, but I think that all groups struggle with this mask issue. We go on Sunday mornings and try to portray ourselves in a certain way and hope no one sees through it. It's no wonder we aren't growing! Shouldn't it be a place where we can take the walls down and truly love each other? Shouldn't we want to help each other with these issues and problems instead of judging each other? Especially since we all struggle with these things! Check this out and see how much you can relate! What can we do to change this about our fellowships?

PS- There are a lot more confessions here.

It's still Ramadan and so I thought I had this genius idea. I wanted to get a taxi pretty close to iftar and go through the drive-thru at Popeye's. Then I could get my roommate and myself some chicken for dinner since we had no food in the house. So, in my best Arabic, I tell the taxi driver that I want to go to my house in this part of town, but first I want to go through the drive-thru at Popeye's. He says something back that includes something like Popeye's and where I told him my house was and I agree. I realize we are getting really close to my house and we never went to Popeye's, but I decide I might as well just go home and I can get something delivered. So we get to the landmark I had told him I lived by and he asks me "wayn bobeye's?" or where is Popeye's? There isn't a "p" sound in Arabic so they use a "b" sound. He thought I told him there was a Popeye's by this landmark, and unless he is new to the city, I'm sure he knew there wasn't. Oh well.

So I get home and I decide Burger King sounds better anyway. So we call and order our food and they tell us it will be an hour. I thought that was probably good since I wasn't super hungry yet anyway. My roommate and I watch last night's episode of The Office and she gets in the shower. My phone rings and I don't recognize the number, but I go ahead and answer. Some Arab man says something that I don't understand so I tell him he has the wrong number and hang up. He calls a couple more times and I finally answer again. I decide to try to understand him this time and after he said it about five times, I realize that he is saying "Burger King." I suddenly remember that we had ordered food and explain where my apartment is located in the building. That was pretty embarrassing. What an adventure for some dinner.

As an extra tidbit, I have to share my roommate's dinner story from the other night. She went to restaurant and wanted to order the smaller burger. They told her that since it was Ramadan she was much too hungry to eat the small burger and she had to order the bigger one. She tried to argue but he maintained that there was no way she could possibly order a small burger during Ramadan and decided what she wanted to eat for her. SO Arab.

Today I was sitting around reading random junk on the internet and I stumbled upon this. After reading this for about an hour and laughing my head off, I realized that this must be what I sound like in Arabic. If I'm lucky. FML