If I remember correctly, this satellite dish if for one of the phone companies that covers Niger. What a striking contrast!
The Muslim saying: 'Inch Allah'
Inch Allah means If Allah wills it. This is what the Muslims will say after every statement with a future ramification. In their view of fatalism, all they do & all that happens is by Allah's will. So, in making any plans for the future (later that day, the next day, etc...) this phrase is added to the end to indicate that they will do said activity if allah wills.
Though I do not hear this phrase as often as I anticipated, I am getting used to hearing it in certain circumstances:
at the veggie stand - when I say good-bye and 'à la prochaine' (until next time) . . . the response of the veggie guy is Inch Allah
on the bumpers of cars and trucks (though it is still disconcerting when I am passing a truck on the highway which is overloaded to the point of looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa . . . and the front of the truck is painted with Inch Allah)
when I leave a friend's house for the night and greet the guard and say 'see you tomorrow' and he responds Inch Allah
However, I received this reponse one day and I wasn't quite sure what it meant:
The other week, one of my guards was unable to make it to work for two days; so I started phoning around the numerous other swing guards on my team to find a replacement. I finally got a hold of Sa'Air who said: 'I will come Friday and Saturday, Inch Allah'.
Ummm .....
Is he coming for sure, but has to add Inch Allah as part of his culture??
Is he maybe coming??
Is he not coming, but can't say no??
Is he planning to come, but if something comes up, then he won't??
I hung up the phone in a slightly bewildered state. Not sure if I should arrange for someone else to come or not.
Sense of Humour
As I was coming back from the village on Thursday, one of the Africans in the back of my truck indicated that he wanted to disembark at a certain area - in the middle of a huge roundpoint, after I had passed the point of being able to turn in to the outer ring to let him out. I jokingly said 'Here?! You will have to jump!!'. I then indicated that I would turn around at the next round point and head back to let him out where he needed.
Harouna thought it was funny.
Another guy in the truck (Nene) thought I didn't know what the word 'jump' was. So for the rest of the trip, he tried to explain the word to me! When I did pull over, and Harouna got out of the truck, Nene pointed out that his stepping out of the vehicle was the action he had said. He then said the word jump and made an action for it. Later on, when I pulled over to by a cell phone card (credit of minutes) the seller of cards came running from a distance and jumped over a fence to be the first guy to reach our vehicle. Nene again pointed out that what we just saw was jumping!
It would have been too difficult to explain that I knew quite well the meaning of the word 'jump' and that it was meant to be a joke, so I just let it slide!
Canadian grasshopper, meet African locust
Descriptive Language
This difference comes out mostly in restaurants. Though I am thoroughly adventurous with my food, sometimes I like to know in advance what the adventure will hold (or will the adventure be worth the extra money). Following are two restaurant conversations with a waiter:
Restaurant 1:
Me: On the menu there are two hamburgers. What is the difference between the hamburger and the super burger?
Waiter: Well the hamburger is just a hamburger and the super burger is really super!
Me: Uh, huh. Well, does the super burger have extra toppings; like lettuce and tomatoes?
Waiter: Yes, it is super!
I did not ever really figure out the physical difference between the two, and ended up buying the hamburger - unwilling to pay more money for a burger whose only distinguising difference was that it was really super!!.
Restaurant 2:
Me: The beef shwarama is listed on sandwich menu and on the dinner plate menu. What is different about the plate option?
Waiter: The sandwich is just the sandwich, but the plate is the sandwhich plus a whole meal.
Me: Okay. And what is on the plate with the sandwich?
Waiter: All sorts of food.
Again, hmmm . . . As the plate cost more than a sandwich plus fries, was the all sorts of food worth the extra money? I went with the sandwich that day, but still aim to try the plate when my stomach has room to eat all sorts of food. Whatever that may be!
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