They are warm and inviting. It is hard for me to leave my house without greeting all my neighbors. I might be heading out for a quick errand, but after greetings, invitations to food, trying 5 different salads and 3 kinds of meat, and being introduced to family from Jordan, that errand took nearly 2 hours.
They are perfectly happy for you to butcher their language, because at least you are trying! I have an 11 year-old and a 13 year-old neighbor who came out the other day as I was hanging up laundry. They taught me how to say each of my articles of clothing in Arabic and didn't mind that they had to remind me several times how to say skirt.
You also get invited to weddings even though you just met them the day before and you don't even know the bride and groom!
But here is where I can get into trouble. Israeli Arabs are not Tanzanians. Sometimes I make too many assumptions. A Tanzanian pre-invitation to a wedding is called an 'mchango' card. 'Mchango' means contribution. On this card you are informed of about how much you are expected to give towards the wedding, this is likely in addition to the wedding gift.
So, when I opened this invitation I immediately searched for the amount that I was expected to give, nervous that it would be well beyond my abilities.
With the help of Google translate I realized that no 'mchango' was expected. I was simply being invited to the wedding. This situation didn't cause an offense, thankfully. It was just a good reminder not to make too many assumptions.
I wasn't able to go to that wedding, but I am going to one this weekend!
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