{"id":60,"date":"2007-06-17T13:17:06","date_gmt":"2007-06-17T19:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/?p=60"},"modified":"2007-06-17T13:17:06","modified_gmt":"2007-06-17T19:17:06","slug":"bizarre-vendors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/bizarre-vendors\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre Vendors"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got up around 9 a.m. today.\u00c2\u00a0 After puttering around a bit, I collected up some AAFES pogs and headed over to the Green Beans.\u00c2\u00a0 A bazaar was going on in the middle of the “mini mall” area.\u00c2\u00a0 The vendors started calling as I walked through the place.\u00c2\u00a0 “Mista!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Mista!”\u00c2\u00a0 I resisted the catcalls and the urge to blurt out rude Arabic.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, I went into the Green Beans coffee shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Filipino worker there had a hard time understanding what I wanted.<\/p>\n

“Large coffee, please.”<\/p>\n

Another soldier walked in behind me.\u00c2\u00a0 “You, sir?” The Filipino asked.\u00c2\u00a0 “I’ll have the same,” the soldier said.<\/p>\n

He pointed at the super large Mother Of All Coffee cups.\u00c2\u00a0 That was twice the price of the large that I wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 “No,” I told him.\u00c2\u00a0 “The triple of house coffee.\u00c2\u00a0 The large.”<\/p>\n

“Medium?”<\/p>\n

“No,” I said.\u00c2\u00a0 I walked over to the sign and pointed at what I wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 “This.\u00c2\u00a0 This right here,” tapping on the billboard of menu items.<\/p>\n

“No triple, sir.\u00c2\u00a0 Large in this cup?” he asked pointing at the Mother Of All Coffees.<\/p>\n

“Sure, why not.”\u00c2\u00a0 I gave up.\u00c2\u00a0 I looked at the other soldier.\u00c2\u00a0 He shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know either,” he said.\u00c2\u00a0 Good, so I’m not the only one confused about all this.<\/p>\n

I got my coffee and went outside.\u00c2\u00a0 The bazaar was in full swing.\u00c2\u00a0 Having a cigarette and some coffee, I was in a better mood and went to the first stall.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s see what we have.\u00c2\u00a0 The Major was standing out there with bags in hand, so I went next to him.<\/p>\n

He had cups and crap that were fake stone, from Pakistan, and some shamaghs.\u00c2\u00a0 The shamaghs had the head coils and a skullcap for ten bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously, we were getting ripped off in Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh ,well.\u00c2\u00a0 Not by much, since the whole combo would be fifteen bucks in Iraq.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wandered from booth to booth, getting the calls by the vendors.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted to see what trinkets were available and maybe try out some Arabic, to catch the differences in the language from there to here.\u00c2\u00a0 Some slang would be the same, common to the Gulf region.\u00c2\u00a0 Some was different.<\/p>\n

“Mista!\u00c2\u00a0 Mista!\u00c2\u00a0 You come holla at me!\u00c2\u00a0 You give me good deal!”<\/p>\n

What?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You want some bling bling?”<\/p>\n

What?\u00c2\u00a0 Do I look like a Bling Bling kind of guy?<\/p>\n

“Mista!\u00c2\u00a0 Which one you like?\u00c2\u00a0 You make me good deal!”<\/p>\n

Most of the time, I got my point through with Standard Arabic.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the Gulf slang was in my vocabulary.\u00c2\u00a0 Once I lapsed in Arabic, they were friendly for the most part, and impressed to varying degrees.\u00c2\u00a0 It was amusing.\u00c2\u00a0 One guy was very friendly and helpful.\u00c2\u00a0 I was able to pick up some new words for some of the traditional clothing, different names for the same thing.\u00c2\u00a0 I almost felt obligated to buy something, but I left before the feeling took too strong\u00c2\u00a0 a hold of me.\u00c2\u00a0 Cheap Pakistani and Japanese knock-offs don’t scream Kuwait to me.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the stuff was the obligatory fare.\u00c2\u00a0 Shoes, boots, by the truckload.\u00c2\u00a0 Shawls, some of nice Kashmir wool, scarfs, head wraps.\u00c2\u00a0 Cups, saucers, stone animals made of hard plastics.\u00c2\u00a0 Fake Ivory.\u00c2\u00a0 Cheap tin daggers with Rhinestone scabbards.<\/p>\n

“What is this?”\u00c2\u00a0 I asked the seller in Arabic pointing to writing engraved on a fake ivory horn.\u00c2\u00a0 The English below it said “Good Friends.”\u00c2\u00a0 I had a feeling it wasn’t that as a translation.<\/p>\n

“It is the last words of The G-d.\u00c2\u00a0 You know, …” and he proceeded to recite the end of the appropriate\u00c2\u00a0 surra to me.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Okay, I see,” I told him in Arabic.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t, but I had heard it enough to recognize it somewhat.\u00c2\u00a0 “How much is it?”<\/p>\n

“I give it to you for 50 my friend,”\u00c2\u00a0 he said in Arabic back to me.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Not fifty,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It’s nice, but no.”<\/p>\n

“Okay, 45 for you.”\u00c2\u00a0 He was pushing the Arabic to see how much I could keep up.\u00c2\u00a0 I had no intention of getting it, so I didn’t feel that it was necessary to continue bargaining for a language lesson.\u00c2\u00a0 In Judaism, it is actually considered a sin to lead someone on for a sale when the buyer has no intention of buying.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a moral principle about leading someone on under false pretenses.\u00c2\u00a0 It is just good morality.\u00c2\u00a0 I was not going to be talked into dropping some money today on stuff that I really do not need.\u00c2\u00a0 Nor did I want him to think that I was going to spend money, and he should make a pitch, maybe lose face somehow with his peers, self-esteem, whatever.<\/p>\n

“No, thank you.\u00c2\u00a0 I have no money.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks.”<\/p>\n

“No money?\u00c2\u00a0 No, you’re American.”<\/p>\n

“No, I have no money today.\u00c2\u00a0 Thank you, my friend.”\u00c2\u00a0 And I walked away.<\/p>\n

The wind was really whipping up now.\u00c2\u00a0 Stands were blowing over, tarps getting ripped off.\u00c2\u00a0 Sand was everywhere, and most of the natives had their faces covered.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the Americans did too.<\/p>\n

Arroyo came wandering over.\u00c2\u00a0 He had some cute trinket for some woman back at work.\u00c2\u00a0 It sounded weird, that she was of no political importance, not his boss, but he felt obligated to get her something.\u00c2\u00a0 Odd.<\/p>\n

For his boss, I pointed him out the fake stoneware.\u00c2\u00a0 His boss was an older well traveled drinker.\u00c2\u00a0 Some fake stone plastic shot glasses would be the thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Arroyo didn’t know, decided not too and wandered to the PX.<\/p>\n

I wandered to the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 There were a lot of people there now, with units finally coming in at night due to the weather.\u00c2\u00a0 I waited five minutes, got on, checked email, and left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got up around 9 a.m. today.\u00c2\u00a0 After puttering around a bit, I collected up some AAFES pogs and headed over to the Green Beans.\u00c2\u00a0 A bazaar was going on in the middle of the “mini mall” area.\u00c2\u00a0 The vendors started calling as I walked through the place.\u00c2\u00a0 “Mista!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Mista!”\u00c2\u00a0 I resisted the catcalls and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-babble-on"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitytestsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}