Th’nbouazi

I don’t remember the phrase my uncle uses, not exactly, nor on which island they used it, but I remember him telling me what it means in English: It doesn’t hurt. It passed as a saying among the men of that place. There, you heard it in the cafes, down at the docks, wherever two or more men convened. You heard it several times a day. My uncle was in love then. But he was deported after he contracted meningitis and had no money to pay for a doctor. She was peeling oranges for him when they came.