Today as I was walking back from Old Town right after school I had just finished putting up posters for the Community Care Day that I helped to organize this Saturday, I saw a boy. He was standing in front of the Mosque, he was probably seven, or eight years old, and he was singing. Actually, chanting, he was singing the verses of the Koran in the most beautiful voice that I have heard in a long time. He had mastered all the small nuances of the rhythm and I could hear him singing before I could see him all the way down Musala street. There were people gathered in clusters listening to him. He didn’t seem like he was begging, because he wasn’t holding his hands out, and he didn’t have a cup. In fact, as I walked past he boldly stared me straight in the eye, as his voice smoothly transitioned to a new verse. I was reminded as I was walking quietly through the streets of Old Town how different Mostar is from Portland. I looked up at the cross towering on the hillside. I listened to the chatter of local, which I can’t understand yet.
It is one of my major goals in the next few weeks to really work on learning local. There is a great website called www.serbianschool.com that outlines a series of lessons that really helped Andy to learn the local language. I really admire his talent for languages; he is able to have conversations in local – an invaluable skill. (As well as speaking French, English of course, and he is learning Arabic from Mustafa) Hussain, my co-year from Baghdad is also teaching me Arabic. I know how to say hello, how are you?, I’m fine, and tell people that he is my Iraqi brother. The wealth of languages here at the college and the desire of students to learn them is amazing. Ab initio classes are for beginners, and so far we have ab initio Hebrew, Russian, and Spanish – all taught by fellow students I might add. People can be seen walking to class singing a song in Hebrew or local, greeting a fellow student in Arabic, and then saying good night in Russian, Hebrew, local, and ubbi dubbi.
Leah and I were having a conversation, about a week ago, about the unfairness that most students have a language which the majority of other people don’t understand, so if they want to talk privately with their parents, or other people from their country they can. Unfortunately, Americans are at a disadvantage because we speak English as our native language (most of the time I am very thankful that English is my native language) – so that is when Leah and I decided to learn ubbi dubbi. It is a language first proposed by the tv show Zoom. Basically, you add the syllable –ub before each vowel pronounced in a word. For example to say, “Hi my name is Hilary.” I would say, “Hubi muby nubame ubis Hubilubaruby.” It is tedious to type, but after several days of practice we are becoming quite proficient. Conversations are a bit slower, and words such as ubunduberstubandubing (understanding) are tongue twisters, but we are getting better each day, and most importantly people can’t understand us! Finally, there is an “American” language J This is a tradition that will hopefully continue here at UWCiM.
Last comment before I finish reviewing for my physics test tomorrow – today was a great socc—oops Futbol game. I am still the only girl that persistently comes on Wednesdays to play with about twenty guys, but it is a lot of fun. I am gradually proving myself, today especially I played really well defensively. People are split into teams of five and play, the winner stays on the field while the next teams rotates onto the field from the bench. Whenever I do a move, or tackle a guy all the other guys on the bench whistle and clap it is pretty funny. At first I felt pretty inferior, because a lot of the guys are really good at Futbol, but with some coaching from Andy and lots of encouragement from three guys named Mustafa, Almedin, and Ivan I am improving quickly. It is a great sense of camaraderie on the field, competitive, but a ton of fun.
Within the next couple of days my two main focus’ are the Community Care Day and finishing my research project for a social awareness conference in Kosovo. Good luck to all the people who are applying to colleges right now!
That’s all for now folks!
Laku Noc from Hilary
