There have been one or two problems with the net here in Libya, ever since the day commemorating the end of the Italian occupation when all phone lines were cut out of respect for those who lost their lives. The service is still rather patchy, hence the gap in my updating of this blog.
Anyway, semi-normal service can now be resumed.
I now have my own private policeman. Whenever I go into town, he stops the traffic for me on a particular road, we exchange a few pleasantries in Italian, and I move on. He doesn't do it for anyone else - he's there to stop cars behaving badly - a never-ending task given the eccentricity of Tripolitanian road behaviour.
On the subject of traffic, here's a picture of the main bus station in Tripoli - just a hundred yards from my flat:
A bus journey of about three miles costs 25 piastres - 10 pence. It's a bit hairy, but quite an experience. Taxis, too, are very helpfully priced, and equally scary. Traffic accidents are the biggest threat here, not the usual suspects!
I found a supermarket yesterday with the help of one of my flatmates, so am now able to cut my living costs quite considerably. The 'flavour' of the supermarket was very Italian, so no Cheshire cheese or Marmite, but have made myself some very tasty pasta dishes now. Camel may well be on the menu soon.
I have also started my Arabic classes - very slowly initially. Can you guess what this says?
Yes - John!
I have looked for a dictionary which gives English pronunciation of Arabic words, but no luck so far. I'll probably have better luck in Malta or the UK.
The teaching is still wonderful. Most of the lessons last only 90 minutes, and there's usually alot of ground to cover, so it's quite intense, but the students are hungry to learn, and my style seems to gel with them.
Two more weeks of teaching, and then we get a week's break for either a holiday, or time to prepare for the next block of lessons. I haven't decided what I'll do yet, but my options are a little limited - my passport has passed into the hands of The Authorities, and there's no telling when it will reappear. Soon, I hope, because otherwise I'll become an illegal immigrant in a fortnight.
I would have thrown in a guess of 'topless service this way'. If words don't seem to have separate letters they don't seem to be words to me! I know this is my own ignorance, but I strongly feel I would not be able to learn a language in which I couldn't find even one recognisable letter! Hope you're enjoying yourself, bus station looks a bit rough though. All the best now, Chas.