Why?

It’s really frustrating to want to have questions but to lack the vocabulary for the questions and the answers. This causes me to I’m thinking of my brother who went through a serious “why” stage when he was in 6^th or 7^th grade. I specifically remember the stage (but not the year) this because it was the summer our family vacation took us through Denver, where we picked up Aunt Doris, Mom’s youngest sister, and then we drove on to Wyoming. There we visited Dad’s oldest sister, Auntie Elma, and his cousin Dorothy and her family before we headed into Yellow National Park, returningto Kansas by way of the Black Hills in North Dakota.

By the end of the second day, the adults wanted to throttle my brother. He had two things to say that summer: “Why?” and “But…why?” Nonstop. At the end of two weeks, he was lucky we didn't leave him at Mount Rushmore where he did a spectacular disappearing act for most of an afternoon that left mom a nervous wreck and me secretly hoping that maybe he'd fallen off the trail and plunged...you know how siblings are.

Well, that’s the way I felt today…all day…I wanted to ask questions. But I don’t have the French vocabulary for it. If I had, here’s what they would have been:

Ba, why did you sleep until 8:30 this morning instead of staying up after your prayers at 5:30?

Didn’t you hear the prayers this morning at 5:30? Why?

Are you tired from Ramadan fasting?

There’s no bread for sale today. Why? Is it a Ramadan tradition?

How many imams say the prayers? Two? Three? Why?

Are the prayers in Arabic?

Ba, do you read the Qu’ran? In what language?

Why do you touch your forehead to the ground?

What do you think about when you’re hungry?

Ieta, this is the first day you are fasting. Why today?

Ieta, why is there no bread for sale? Is that why you're fasting?

Ieta, did you take a nap this afternoon for two hours because you are fasting?

Did you know I knew you were napping?

Ba, are you sure you don’t get headaches?

What are you going to have to eat when Ramadan is over?

Do you feel better about life because you’re fasting?

Do you want to have sex because you're not supposed to?

What day of Ramadan is this?

How many are left?

Will there be more days without baguettes? If so, when?

It’s good that I don’t have the vocabulary and they don’t have to answer. If it were otherwise, there would be compound headaches.