Bas-boo-sa

I had my first Arabic language and Sudanese culture class today.

It began well. We started with eating. One of my teachers, whom we call Mimi, is a beautiful Sudanese woman who is writing a cookbook containing traditional Sudanese recipes. As her students, we have the privilege of taste testing her fabulous recipes. Today she prepared Bam-Yah Okrah)for us. Bam-Yah is a deliciously spicy rice, vegetable, and beef medley that is flavored with a type of cloves I didn't know existed but could easily grow to love; cardamon. Are any of you familiar with this ingredient? If you are, do you happen to have any idea about how to use it or at least how to spell it correctly?

We also had a fantastic dessert which, predictably, turned out to be my favorite dish both because of its taste and pronunciation. Bas-boo-sa is a very sweet cake of a grainy texture that combines cream of wheat, egg, yogurt, coconut, almond flakes and a home-made syrup glaze to make a delicious and light (but filling) treat. It was the perfect finishing touch to a savory and spicy meal.

The class has promised to send us the recipes by e-mail this week. I promise to pass along my favorites as I discover them.

The second section of class involved learning sounds for the Arabic alphabet. This was quite a challenge as the most common phrase I heard from our teacher, Faisal, was some variation of, "There is no english equivalent for this sound. You do not have this sound in your language." How incredibly fascinating to try learning something new without a familiar point of reference. Struggling to learn these sounds re-awoke in me a passion for language and the miracle of the spoken word.

We followed up this verbal portion of class with what I interpreted to be a grammar and writing lesson. We practiced writing (right to left) characters and adding signs (or what I interpret to be similar to accents) to them in order to change their pronunciation. At this point my brain almost exploded. I was grateful when we moved on to the next section of class in which we learned some things about the Sudanese culture and wedding traditions. How fitting, as recently, much of my free time has been occupied with the details of planning for the multiple weddings I will be making an appearance in this spring and summer.

I was enthralled to learn that in many tribes in southern Sudan a man wishing to marry a woman must pay her family in cows. The more beautiful the woman is to him, the more cows he will offer. Can you imagine the horror of being the woman who only fetches a one cow proposal?

We also discussed the legal and religious foundations for Sudanese men being allowed up to four wives and what managing four wives might look like on a practical level. Can you imagine the stress of keeping four wives emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually satisfied while at the same time keeping them from fighting with each other? It was really interesting to hear Tarig talk about how husbands are very careful to give equal gifts to all wives and to set schedules giving a wife her own day so as to maintain harmony. What different values from ours in America must dictate a system like that.

I also learned that in the Sudanese culture it is not unusual for both single and unmarried men and women to live with their parents. In fact, what would be unusual in their culture would be for someone to leave home to live on their own. When this happens people often wonder what that person has done to offend the family and get thrown out. Another interesting idea to mull around.

Despite being outrageously difficult to learn, I am very interested in the Arabic language. It is beautiful to write and to hear spoken and I am looking forward to class next Sunday. That is, of course, assuming I can get my homework done before then.