thoughts from the desert

I’m in the rehab lounge at the Tripoli airport… Waiting for my flight… Just had a piece of vanilla cake, bottle of water and a quick shot of espresso…
Getting closer and closer to home now

Just arrived in Tripoli and giving the handover to my colleague
Driver should pick me up at 16:45 and then… back home!!!!!

24 … the number of hours before I’m back on the island
(assuming that thae AirMalta flight doesn’t get delayed)
19:00

I think the house boy… (aka the guy who cleans the rooms)… wanted to make sure that I notice that he had cleaned my bathroom…
Last night, I went back to my room and as I was washing my face I instinctively stretched my hand out to reach for my facewash… but it wasn’t there!!!!! so I [...]

My colleagues and friends for these last 3 weeks came from:

Malta (!!!!!)
UK
Spain
France
Bosnia
Croatia
Romania
Canada
Argentina
Colombia
Peru
Venezuela
India
Phillipines
Palestine
Iraq
Libya (duh!)

Teach Yourself Slang Arabic 07
moħħ ma fiħx
I think you can guess what in means, no?
Empty head / no brains

Finally I found some time to write in between jobs!
These last few days have been like crazy! … but in some way still fun nonetheless.
This morning the office felt like a Sedqa or Caritas support centre, or like the office of a psychologist lol…
I have these 2 extra chairs, one on the other side of [...]

Teach Yourself Slang Arabic 06
Mija Mija
(”j” sounds like “y” … sounds like “Mia mia“)
literally it means 100% … but here it can be used in other ways…
eg… 
Q: “Kif bħalek?”    //    “How are you?”
A: “Mija Mija”       //    ”everything is fine!”

Just been to the administration office next door…
I knocked,
saw the two guys chatting,
and as I entered the room towards them I say:
Good  Afternoon
They just stared at me… “Good Afternoon??? it’s 7:15am!!”
lol! OK! I guess I’m still a bit sleepy!
(now having my tarmac-like coffee)
Yesterday I had a couple of guys coming in during the day to [...]

Teach Yourself Slang Arabic 05
Shwejja
(”sh” like “shepherd”, “jj” like “yy“)
Shwejja means “a little”, “not too much”…
I use it everyday, to stop the guys who serve food from filling up my plate!!