Now I know my ABCs

Today was a typical day for me.  I woke up and did some reading and journaling, then enjoyed a curry breakfast at 9 o clock.  By 10 o clock I was ready to leave the house for the day, as per my host's instructions; we ended up leaving at 11:30 - typical of how time flows here in Sri Lanka.  I have learned to always have a book or magazine handy.  We were off to make the rounds visiting some people from the congregation, praying for them, seeing how we can help meet some of their needs.  These visits are usually conducted exclusively in Sinhala, so I usually just pray, or if there are children in the house I try to make funny faces at them, hoping to solicit a smile or two.  Kids don't seem to care that I can't speak their language.  I am learning a lot of these universal languages as I am here. smiling is one language in which I have been able to have beautiful conversations.
 Anyways, one of these smile conversations led this one pretty little girl to show me her "Learning ABC" book.  She opened it up and showed me the "R" for Rabbit, and "D" for Dog and other classic examples that you would expect to find in a book teaching the alphabet to toddlers.  However, there were a couple examples that were sure sign indicators that this book was not published in a country that speaks English as there first language.  This lovely publishing company from Sri Lanka had some interesting words it wanted to teach children for "A" and "Q":

For those of you, who like me, do not even know what "quinine" is:
quinine |ˈkwīˌnīn|
noun
a bitter crystalline compound present in cinchona bark, used as a tonic and formerly as an antimalarial drug. • An alkaloid; chem. formula: C 20 H 24 N 2 O 2.

Definitely a useful word in anyone's vocabulary.
If only I had a book to teach me these these valuable words when I was a toddler.