Advertisement
Those of you who work with or live with my dad may not want to read this blog entry...his head is swelling as I type!
In Algeria, we all got a great chuckle out of the 40 year old business man approaching dad because he believed, with sincerity, that dad was the star of "The Hunt for Red October." He was sure he was a submarine captain and so embarrassed when we informed him he was inaccurate. At lunch yesterday we were laughing even louder.
We are in Douz, a tiny little oasis town on the edge of the Sahara Desert where tourists gather only for expeditions into the sand dunes. In the afternoon, the town becomes quiet and void of activity. Dad and I wandered into a little restaurant that seemed to be manned by a young Tunisian man. As we were ordering food--using English, French and hand gestures--he kept suggesting he had seen us before. Sounded to us like a scam to get us on a camel ride into the dunes and we just dismissed it.
Had lunch, rested and all the while this kid would not drop it about seeing us before and dad looking familiar. It became clear he was not trying to work us and he was legitimately frustrated by not being able to determine how he knew dad! Finally as we were getting ready to leave, he got his English-speaking friend to come to the restaurant. (It is quite generous to say he speaks English, by the way!) His friend helped him communicate that he thought dad was a famous film star!
We both smiled and I told him that he was not famous and had not been in any films, but he did not seem to believe me! As we communicated, we figured out he thought dad was Alec Baldwin!! We repeatedly try to tell him that he was not, but we could not convince him! He was so excited to shake dad's hand and take a picture. Then he insisted we send him a copy of the photo.
As we walked back to our hotel, we realized our normal behaviors probably played into his belief that dad was famous....I always carry the money, so I paid for lunch; I ordered lunch because my French is better than dad's (again, generous to say I speak any French at all, but I could order lunch!) and the ATM was not working in English, so I went to the ATM to get dad some money! That young man is probably thinking how nice it would be to have an assistant or agent like dad has!!! (or like Alec Baldwin!)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0358s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Coye
non-member comment
RAIN!
In the last 24 hours, the farm has received .80 inches of rain, and according to Granny about 20 minutes ago, it was just pouring. It is supposed to do this all weekend. Keep your fingers crossed. Alec Baldwin, really?