Osman the Tutor...

I went shopping last night; I wanted to stop by the rug dealer that is set up on post. One of the rugs that most interested me was priced at $6500 which quickly fell to $5900 after a couple of minutes (dealers are from India) and I’m sure it would have gone another $1000 if I just would have stood around for a bit longer. I’m going to have to do some research on the rugs, they were awfully expensive and I have no clue how valuable they really were, or if there’s a better place to get them. These stores are Army sponsored, so they have to be a bit legit to do business on post, but its still caveat emptor. These were 6’ X 9’ silk rugs, 700 knots per square inch.

I went shopping for a rug and settled on a tutor, instead.

I’ve been looking around this post for some language classes (Arabic) and stopped into the Army Distance Learning Center, the Ed center (you know, Iraq…Arabic…Ed Center, I didn’t think that was such a leap) but there were no language classes available. They did have a multitude of classes to get my GED but I’m probable OK in that area. I’d been asking around to see if I could pay for a tutor, someone that could help me pick up the language but wasn’t having much luck. I’m going to get the chance to work with the Iraqi Security Forces (their Army), so I thought it’d be worthwhile to at least be able to say hello.

It truly is amazing and this is one thing that hasn’t changed in all my years in the military. There is no demand on these foreign posts to learn host nation languages. We run everything on the post ala America. Sure we have cultural awareness and things like that, but the majority of the inhabitants make no efforts to dig beyond the surface. Granted, most people can’t go downtown and order Hallah meals, but there are not a lot of things to do here and if someone wanted to travel to say, Jordan or Qatar in the future, it might just come in handy, no? Well, that’s what I thought, too.

I’m walking out the rug shop, got the manager’s name and their trying to drag me back in to haggle some more and I end up escaping but not without the name of a local that could help. He said, “Go see Osman at the Alterations store!”

So I did. Osman is about 25 years old and speaks halting English. He didn’t understand the word tutor, but he figured it out when I equated it to teacher. Once he realized what I wanted, his face lit up and he immediately agreed. I liked him from the start; he’s a pretty bright kid with an ambitious streak a mile wide. We decided on 10-15 sessions and we’re going to start tonight. I asked him what he would charge, and he totally declined any payment, he said he would do it just to help. I said no, I’d pay him and we spend a good bit of time haggling, we finally agreed that I’d pay him something at the end, whatever that would be. It turns out he works from 9am in the morning to 9pm at night and would do it after then. I’m not sure what he even makes, but it looks like we’ll start tonight and see how it goes. I’ve got his first name, Osman, but that’s all I know about him.

I travel tomorrow; and I hope to have some pictures that I can post. Best wishes to all and mucho love to all my family and friends.