Moment #506. Amharic at Laundry. Thur, Dec 29, 2005.

12/29/2005. I wanted to wash the clothes I bought on sale yesterday, because I might wear them this weekend, so I took them and the clothes in the laundry basket to the nearby laundromat.

There was a lady, who looked like she could have been Ethiopian, doing laundry. Sitting at a table some distance away was a man playing with a little boy who looked like her son.

After I got my washers started, I retrieved an Amharic and two English copies of the Book of Mormon from my car. I placed them on my washers, and then placed them on the folding table in front of the dryers I used.

The man appeared to be a very loving and doting father as he took his son around to the various games and vending machines in the laundromat. At first I thought it was chauvinistic of him to leave all the laundry work to his wife, but maybe he did her a favor by occupying the young boy.

I eventually approached the man, and he did speak Amharic. He was curious about the Book of Mormon in Amharic, and gratefully accepted it and the English copy. We spoke for a few minutes, and he also helped me with the pronunciation of some words in Amharic that I picked up on my second set of language CDs. The pronunciation I had picked up from the CDs was off a bit, so he helped correct me. I bought this second set of CDs because it had some languages not contained in the first one.

I felt a little guilty observing the man for an opportunity to approach, but the fact that he was genuinely grateful for the books let me know he didn't mind being approached at all.