Papyrus por favor!

The kids here have a succint vocabulary of purely the most financially advantageous of words: "please" in most languages of the Western Hemisphere, Mastercard, Visa and American Express, good exchange rate, I'm starving (most Romantic languages too), high quality, cheapest price around, and so on.

I saw a boy wrapped in what appeared a white bed sheet sitting in a wheelchair backed by his mother outside a market yesterday in an ostensible proclamation of dire poverty, but who knew. He was barely exposed, only emaciated fingers and feet visible. Anyone's compunction, including my own, following such a sight, transgresses the bubble of arrogantly shattered ignorance concerning legitimate poverty. It's still there.

Now that classes have begun, security of the university milieu is that much more stringent. We are now under the tutelage of three guards on our shuttle bus. And a female guard on every floor, not just groundfloor entrances. I've had the opportunity to build a mutually beneficial rapport with the 3rd floor guard. Although I made the mistake of walking into a scene of her on a mat praying, which, she, unlike many, faithfully does five times a day. I am always uncomfortable, and feel I am interrupting when I pass by. Anyhow, she's currently learning English, and reading Huckleberry Finn (a pre-emptive apology to those who took pleasure in this novel, and all English teachers), a novel I hate with a passion. I like Mark Twain, and that preternatural quirk I can only find in quotes...real life nonfictional commentaries, but I detest his novels. I have been assisting her with vocabulary, grammer, and, of course, a southern dialect I can barely comprehend. And she teaches me new colloquial phrases.

My elective is Quranic Readings, and this is the first time I've had a Muslim professor in this area, which is very interesting. My background knowledge has been immensely helpful, although her personal slant is cumbersome. It's a class of semantics at times...the leap between "gather" and "collect" is enormous in the initial production of the Quran as I found. And she bears a didactic punch I can't refute, but find myself squeaking around. It's going to be an awesome class though. Inchallah.