So, from the time that Lester and I have lived here at good ol' Bent Tree, we have gradually made friends with this Libyan family a few doors down. The family consists of the mom and dad (not sure of their names), Mustafah (5), Sarah (3), and ??? (1). (They always tell me their youngest sister's name, but I can't ever understand them). Anyway, last summer they would come to our patio and color without saying much, but this summer we've seen their real personalities! Every time we went to the pool, they seemed to be there as well. Mustafah would insist upon Lester doing swimming races with him. If Lester won, he would get mad and go pout! One time we watched the dad drop Sarah in the pool with no pants on to go pee!!! There are sooo many cultural differences!!!
One of our favorite things is hearing them speak. The children can speak english very well with a slight accent. Every time they say anything with the letter 'R' they replace with with an 'L'. It's very amusing to listen to for some reason. The father is extremely hard to understand but continues to speak even if he knows we aren't getting it!
We've also noticed that the father does all of the activites with the kids. Not sure if this is a cultural requirement or if the mother just prefers to get them out of their small apartment. I can see as I walk by their apartment that they have very little furniture and very little decor. The two older kids share the spare bedroom and the 1 year old sleeps with her parents. It makes me realize how lucky I am that I can afford a two bedroom apartment and there's only two of us living here!
Well, the latest Libyan fun that we've had was Thursday night. Lester was sitting outside on the patio with the screen door open and I was organizing pictures on the living room floor. I hear the kids get closer and eventually they make themselves at home. They asked us where our crayons and pictures were and for snacks and the whole bit! It cracked me up! They're lucky they're so cute... ;)
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