well, maybe... do you really think so?

so, as a bit of background, you need to know that a favorite game around these parts is: guess the foreigners' ethnicity/country of origin. french and spanish are favorites. when that's not right, usually the fall-backs are british, german or italian. american is rarely ever guessed.

so i was walking the other day, and some kids in one of the more remote villages i go to yelled, "hey, somali!" so i looked around, because someone from Somalia around these parts would be kind of big news. i didn't see anyone, so i kept walking. the kid yelled again, "Hey, somali!" i looked around again, and the kid was looking at me. i said, "hey, moroccan!" and just kept walking because i didn't have the heart to tell him that someone calling me somali was the craziest thing i'd heard that day.

in not unrelated news, i was going out to the most remote village i visit and there were people working on the road. they made fun of me because i'm silly looking and not from around here. i told them their work was going to get washed away the next time it rained. once they heard my arabic (they being mostly un-arabized Amazighen) they apologized and said that i look like a foreigner. then they agreed that, yes, their work would be washed away the next time it rained, but it was a good job because they were almost getting paid the minimum wage. (i don't even get the minimum wage... [unless you include housing and retirement plan]). i told them that i am a foreigner. they were a little surprised but got over it quickly.