Hangman

From left to right, Ramla, me and Chaimae

The eldest daughter of the family I'm staying with, Chaimae, is completely lovable and one of the sweest and funniest women I've ever met. Although her English is excellent, I wish I could catch all her witty jokes and sassy comebacks which are often in Darija. While being bright, no-nonsense, and responsible, she laughs so easily and is so fun to joke with. I just adore her. Much of her English she has picked up from movies so she will often come out with phrases and curse words that bust me up laughing. Because she is such a sweetheart, it's all the more hilarious to hear her use street language or slang.

I took her out on the town the other night so we could talk about“guy problems”. We went out to a nice cafe and I got us both milkshakes as she had never had one. The topic at hand came to a head when the guy sent her a text message while we were at the cafe and it visibly irritated her. She kept asking me what she should do. Then she thought for a second and said,“Maybe I will tell him to go f*** himself,” to which I just about died laughing. I asked her if she knew what that meant in English and indeed she does.

To direct our attention elsewhere, I started drawing pictures on the napkins at the cafe. She had commented that the waiter was cute so I drew a caracature of her waving hello to him. This began the game of hangman which I taught her. I thought up words she always says in English and she had me guess words in Darija that I say a lot. She loved the game and really got into it with enthusiasm. Whenever I would guess an incorrect letter, she would let out an evil cackle and take great pride in slowly hanging my hangman. If I got really close to the hangman being complete, she sould say, “Oh, Tamara, the poor guy is going to die! You must do something!” We played hangman at the cafe for about an hour and a half, moving on from our milkshakes to coffee. I've never had so much fun with that game.