English and Arabic

Protection

Daily Life

Young and beautiful in America. Working and independent. Own money in hand free to buy whatever one wants. Not usually associated with a Muslim girl. I can work, I can spend it’s my own money, my freedoms. I can go to movies, alone or with friends. Those friends maybe boys and girls, or both. I can go to Mc Donalds and eat a fish sandwich why everyone else eats hamburgers. I can go to movies and watch R-rated. Just not think about using the words when I get out at home or anything.

For love

Sex, something so condemned in Islam until marriage. Then you can all the sex you have. Hey have as much kids you want. But how is one supposed to get to that stage of marriage. Not just the regular way. For me as a girl can only marry a Muslim man. So identifiable. Anyone can spot them out in a crowd a Muslim couple. Man tall, bearded with dark hair, and milky skin, and woman slender, covered, dark hair and hazel eyes. Making offspring that look exactly the same. How will genetic variation occur then? Aha!…Converts looked upon highly by the Muslim community for converting.

Language

At home we speak English but English definitely like no other. If I was to speak this English at work or school no one would understand. I call my home English “broken” English. For it is broken with many different other languages and dialects. When I call someone or being called upon my instinct reaction is not to say yes, ha, it is to say “gee”, English broken with urdu. Or writing the wrong spelling in class for colour. Or when being called upon to spell zebra, I say zed-e-b-r-a. And now to throw it even more off, during prayer we are not even supposed to speak in English but Arabic. I am surprised I don’t pull an Anzaladua and write in all three English, Urdu, and Arabic.

Dress

Which clothes should I wear?

Molded

Cracks in the mold

Cars, Cars, Car, I don’t know which one to choose from. In Guyana all we had were bicycles and our feet to carry us around. This will be my first owned property all mine with all my money. Everything I have ever had before was bought by my dad or my mom and even if I did buy it and they thought it was frugal spending I wouldn’t hear the end of it. Wow, I don’t even want to know what my family would think. “It’s not safe for you to drive” “Girls don’t drive until they are married” “I didn’t have a car when I was growing up, we had things the hard way” Just be happy for me for once, I am not living in your past, it is my future and my present.

Partial Integration

Definitely hard times had hit! I was only able to go to the supermarket twice a month to get all our necessities. We could not afford to fill gas in the car with high prices and long lines. The supermarket shelves always used to be packed with all sorts of around the world items that I used in my cooking. With the boycott on oil it seems like everything else is being boycotted. It has gotten so expensive to just ship item here. Last time I went I ran into Jenny after about 5 years, a lot had changed, she had kids, I had kids and we were no longer cheery twenteh year olds.

I told her how I preferred my kids to go to school that integrated Islam along with school work. She was shocked, and argued how she doesn’t believe that is right and there needs to be integration. I wanted to say my son’s best friend is black and see what she thought about that integration.

I am not Muslim?

Military praying

It was just my aunt, uncle, and I in the house. There were four of us, until my cousin Syed, left for service about 6months or so ago. Then recently we heard, him having to go to the Middle East to support or resupply Israel. This will take a toll on him I am sure, these supplies are going into be used against fellow Muslims. In this religion we are all known as brothers and sisters. But no one knows that he is Muslim. He was not allowed to put that down as his identity. They should do something soon about that, I wonder how many Muslims there are over there right now in hiding or their identity.

Guyanese American Arabic

Islamic school every Sunday was not fun. Especially, when you feel like an outsider in your own religion. Just because how you read Arabic is different from everyone else. I can’t roll my R’s it’s so difficult. In Sunday school in Guyana everyone sounded alike to me when they pray, but now I could tell there is a distinct different. I don’t know which way is correct or not?

So this Sunday, like every Sunday we have to recite, the suras that were assigned for us to memorize and I was chosen to read it. So now I have three different ways of speech to make sure I do not mix up

1.  Guyanese accent at home

T-shirt design for IOC

2.  American accent at work

3.  Arabic accent at school

Alarm Clock

So for the first time since I started working at the bank and the move I made a friend. It was cool, I always had Guyanese friends but this time, the girl is a white girl. She was coming over for dinner but I didn’t know if she would like “my” type of food. I don’t know what “white” people eat, hamburgers and fries all the time?

So when she came over I introduced her to my aunt and uncle, and Jenny turns to me and say “Ally, you look just like your aunt.” Now my aunt had a puzzled look on her face but didn’t say anything.

All of a sudden, while we were listening to our favorite radio soap opera in the living room the alarm goes off! “Allahu-Akbar, Allah.” Oh my gosh!?! I don’t understand why my aunt needs a loud speaker reminder as to when to pray, she can just have a regular alarm clock.

Azan Clock