While I was at church, Fahim went to work to play on the computers and download email and things like that. Okay, okay, he did some work, too, of that I’m fairly certain, but seriously, isn’t it my job to mock him as much as I possibly can?

When he came back, the next door neighbor’s servant was outside, maybe washing a car or something like that. Anyway, yon servant mentioned some kind of charity, and now he’s looking for a donation. Our doorbell rang this afternoon, so Fahim says "shh!" and tells me all about it while he jumps up and looks out the bedroom window to see who was at the gate. He said it was the guy looking for the donation. Well, it’s not fair – I’m way too short to use the bedroom window that way. Waaah!!! Anyway, we ignored it, hoping the guy would just go away and leave us alone.

He rang the doorbell several times but eventually left. But not for long. Oh no.

People here seem to be really grabby about donations, let me tell you.

He came back a few hours later and rang the doorbell. Fahim finally clued in that this guy wasn’t going to leave us alone and we couldn’t hid for forever, so he reluctantly went down and gave him a hundred bucks.

Now, before you all panic at the ghastly sum of money, here’s something else I should explain. When using dollars, here, that almost always indicates US dollars, unless it was actually specified to be Canadian dollars. But if someone says, "Yeah, it cost me 50 dollars," they mean it cost them $50 US. Whereas if you use the term buck, as in "those bananas cost me 35 bucks," they’re talking Rupees. It’s the way it is here. People don’t say "it cost me 50 Rupees," cuz that’s an extra syllable, and why go to all that bother? No, no, no. It’s bucks.

So when Fahim gave that guy a hundred bucks, he’s saying he gave the guy a hundred Rupees. Or the equivalent of about a buck US.

Gotcha!!