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Blog Entry 149 of 182 Bad Mom
I call myself Bad Mom because at the time I came up with it, I was learning about the assumptions we put behind our words. I was following the pattern of not believing that my kids are okay, and speaking to them from that basis. I changed that, and it made a big difference. I am from Utah and my people are still living there. My husband was in the Air Force and we rattled around until we saw Colorado, and we stuck.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~Huh

Halal Grocery
Contributed by: Lisa Arata   on 10/10/2008

In my venture back into tutoring English as a Second Language I made up some little cards to take around to potential customers. I put a few up on the bulletin board at the tortilleria yesterday, and today I ventured over to the tiny little halal grocery store in town.

It smelled of different spices, reminiscent of the houses of foreigners whom I knew when I was in college. They ate things like kimchi or meats laced with cumin, and they used sesame oil. The smells permeated their clothes and their sweat, and so I can only imagine that I must have smelled weird to them too.

I bought some dried adzuki beans and hominy grits and brought them home to try. They're cooking on the stove. Adzuki beans have a lot more protein in them than pinto beans.

The women at the grocery checkout were from some African country. They were friendy and outgoing enough. One spoke English better than the other. A young man came in and said hello to me. That's good. I don't think it's in Islamic law that men can't speak to women. Maybe not shake hands, but it's okay to talk to people. As far as I know.

There are already English classes in town, and I don't know if they charge tuition or not. I am going to charge a fee per lesson after the first free one, and I'll consider a lesson about an hour, or as long as it takes for the student to say, "Aha!" that they've learned something they wanted to learn.

My goal in doing this is to help people succeed, and to foster integration and to meet interesting people.

I think I'll need to work on my customer service skills, as far as making sure I know what they're expecting and what they think they can use. I want people to feel they're getting a good value. I'm not confident but I'm willing to take it step by step.

So, we'll see if I can get any takers. I made up the little cards awhile ago and only now am I brave enough to set them out. To be honest I almost hope nobody calls. It would be easier and less frightening.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Lisa Arata

Greeley , CO

Lisa Arata has posted 182 blog entries and 282 comments since joining on 4/18/2007. Lisa Arata 's average blog rating is 4.74.
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