Sharifa

I have just started tutoring a high school student in Kandahar. It's through an online volunteer program. Via Skype I've talked with Sharifa three times. There are several constraints due to Afghani culture and Muslim beliefs. I was going to send her some of the photos I took at the diving then I remembered we can't let the girls see us if we're in short sleeve shirts. Clearly, men and women in swimsuits would be taboo. Yet for us, they're non-sexual. So I stopped myself.

I don't want to get kicked out of the program already.

Sharifa's got excellent pronunciation, but her listening, vocabulary, etc. needs work. It doesn't help that Skype can have poor sound quality.

I'm not sure if she has seven brothers or two. At first she said seven, I thought. Then after determining that she was the oldest child, I asked how old her youngest brother was she said 16. Now Sharifa's 18 so unless her brother is a multiple or the middle children are, we've failed to communicate.

I figure, in time, these things will shake themselves out.