The supermarket security guard

This evening we did our usual weekly shopping at our favorite supermarket. As we were going in, the security guard (all large stores here have security guards) asked us about how to pronounce "color". Of course we told him.

When we were coming out of the store, we greeted him and helped him with some additional English words. He told me that he wants to learn English because all the rest of his family is in America or Australia. I noticed that he was writing the pronunciation in Arabic letters, not Hebrew. So I told him that after I learned Hebrew well, he could teach me Arabic. He then told me that he also spoke Aramaic!

After some further conversation, I found out that his family was originally from Iraq but had moved to Lebanon. While there, they had helped Israel in its fight against Hezbollah and the other enemies there during the time when Israeli troupes were still in southern Lebanon. I had known that when Israel withdrew from Lebanon completely in 2002, we had allowed our allies (mostly Meronite Chrisitians, I think) to move to Israel in order to avoid retaliation. But this is the first time that I had met one of these people personally.

So, just another one of those cool, only-in-Israel stories!