As I reach for the garlic shampoo (yeah, I know, how cool is that? btw, this is not the sequel to my quest for a healthy breakfast the other day) she stops me in my tracks.
She’s young, with the kind of beautiful heavy make-up I dream of decoding one day (what goes in that astonishing mix? and how do you make it stick? and look so perfect?) and braces. Carefully straightened hair.
Hello! I want to give you a prize.
Oh good. Thanks. What is it?
Oh many prizes. How much lucky you are?
Not very.
OK, give me 3 countries that start with the letter K.
Aaaa, Kenya, KSA….Korea. (I give myself a big self congratulatory smile and a pat on my soon to be garlic-ed hair).
Very good. You are the most beautiful.
Thanks. So are you.
Can you go to my company to take your prize?
Probably not. What prize?
Many prizes.
What company?
Big company. Accommodation.
Eastraveller 
Garlic shampoo? Do you smell like garlic after you use it?
You must be doing well with the language if you understood that whole conversation. Did you get your prizes?
I wish:) Sadly, the marketer’s English was much better than my Arabic so the whole conversation is recorded exactly as it happened. Sadly again, I didn’t get my prizes from the accommodation company:) Didn’t want to put them off with my garlic smell.
ha! and I’d be hunting for whoever that is who smells so good 😀
Haha awesome description of the conversation at the Kenya market! The garlic shampoo sounds intriguing and for some reason, I kinda want to try some now…
It’s actually very good! The only danger is that once you’ve gone garlic you might not want to go back to anything less powerful:)