The Plan? Not Yet.

Although I have no money and no timetable, I decided it was high time to start planning my "trip," whenever and wherever it might be. Ideally it would be an epic tour of all of North Africa and the Middle East and somehow get to India. We're looking up cheap flights at work and finding some good deals, especially to Tehran. How does that sound right about now? Sign me up, I'd go in a heartbeat. So much strife! So many fantastic things to see and do and take pictures of and opportunities for being arrested for civil unrest or something...don't worry mom, I'd stay under the radar.

Ghado!

That means lunch in Somali. Definitely taking advantage of this whole multi-cultural workplace thing. I went to lunch last week with one of the caseworkers from Lewiston, a Somali woman. We went to Hamdi, the little Somali restaurant/grocery on Washington, and of course she ordered without looking at the menu and instead engaged in a lengthy discussion with the waiter (not even really a waiter, more just the guy that works there) about food, the only word of which I understood was "chicken" (although I later found out that that isn't how you say chicken in Somali, after all).

A few minutes later a plate of rice topped with peas, raisins, and some other stuff and served with a piece of chicken and several pieces of goat meat appeared in front of me, along with a banana, salad and salad dressing, hot green chili paste, and a pitcher of what we decided was watermelon juice. It was delicious - the rice was flavorful and made even better by its garnishes, the meat was flavorful and spicy and the green chili sauce made everything just painful enough to be AWESOME.

On top of it all, I learned my first Somali words! I can now say lunch, table, chair, rice, chicken, meat, banana, juice, and thank you. Hopefully my vocabulary will expand a bit in the future, but I can deal with this for now.