Tuna or Cat Food??

I remember this story we used to read with our ESL students about some non-English speakers who bought and consumed lemon scented dish soap and dog food thinking it was lemon juice and canned meat. I totally understand how that can happen. When you are completely relying on photos to tell you what a package contains, you are sometimes misled. So far we haven't consumed anything poisonous that we are aware of. And most packages here are in both Arabic and English. There have been a few times when I've brought something home and thought, 'Wow, that is NOT what I thought it was.' Because of my uncertainty, grocery shopping takes twice as long. I try to look for familiar brands to save time, but sometimes they may have the same brands but it is a different product.

For example, Avery and I went to the store for Ziploc quart size zip bags, but all of the ziplocs had twist ties on the top. Who ever heard of such a thing? They had gallon-sized Ziplocs, but I thought Avery's sandwich might be lonely in here. After what seemed like 10 minutes of analyzing the packages of boxes and baggies with no pictures and Arabic-only writing, I was starting to feel hot with frustration. Afterall, how can a community survive without Ziploc sandwich bags? Finally, I asked the person stocking the shelves. I pointed to the gallon sized and said, "I want this bag, in this size." He happily grabbed a red box with Arabic print directly next to the Ziplocs and that was that. They are actually a little better quality than Ziploc, if you can imagine that. Next time, I think I will ask first.