Les Langues

The Shire

Well it’s nice to have Danica back in Burundi.  I missed her a lot.  Unfortunately she is still feeling terrible and spends most days in bed, which is something I hope will not last too long.  The boys are constantly climbing on her and competing for her attention so sometimes I just have to get them out of the house.

Of all places, this reminded me the most of Canada

Yesterday I took them up the mountain to a place called Ijenda where there is a nice hike/walk to the top of a hill where one can see a nice view of the surrounding area.  I was invited up with a bunch of missionary/ex-pat friends and rode up in the back of Paul and Rebecca Mosley’s SUV (their blog: pamosley@blogspot.com ).  They have been good friends of ours and have been very supportive throughout our trials.  They have two boys as well, so we do monthly ‘date night’ trade-offs where we watch the other couple’s kids and they watch ours.  It has been nice to be able to start to explore some restaurants in town.  There actually are some hidden gems!

This is my friend Stephan. I like him because he has a beard. We watch Lord of the Rings together. He is German. The boy on Stephan's right has pinworms.

Altogether we were 19 people, which is quite a crowd of Germans (from Black Forest), Americans (upstate NY), Belgians (Flemish), Danish (I think there is only one kind), and Canadians (Anglophone).  Altogether we spoke 5 languages, with the preferred language being French because all the kids use French as a play language.  The German, Danish and Belgian kids don’t speak English (yet), so French is the unifying language with them.  With the adults I am the weakest in French, so they decided to speak English.  It always humbles me to discover Europeans who speak so many languages.  I grew up in an area of the world were English is all I heard for the first 13 years of my life.  After I moved to Abbotsford I began to hear Punjabi and pick up a few words, but the exposure to foreign language was very limited.  Now I am immersed in a culture where most people (including foreigners) speak 3 languages.  I have a lot of catching up to do.  Even our cook and nanny–who both do not even have high-school education–speak 3 languages (Kirundi, Kiswahili and French).

It is so much easier to understand the french of these boys than it is understanding adults

The hike was awesome and the boys loved it.  Outings like this are so important for John because he is able to play with kids that are a few years older than him and that come from a similar culture (European).  At the top of the hill the other kids were doing things like collecting bugs and making forts out of twigs which John absolutely loved.

The hike was low-grade and well marked

We all assembled in a restaurant after the hike and had brochette and fries, which is a very popular local dish.  Brochette is basically skewered meat that comes in beef, fish, goat or chicken.  It tastes awesome and I would have to say that it is one of my favorite foods to eat with salt and pili pili (hot sauce).  After dinner we were blessed with s’mores.  Yes, you read it right s’mores.  Rebecca Mosley brought a bunch of Hershey’s chocolate bars, Graham crackers and marshmallows, and we were able to have an authentic American/Canadian experience.  This was new to the Europeans and they loved it.

The drive to Ijenda is perhaps the most beautiful in the country

I have come to realize over my time here that Americans really are like us in so many ways.  When I lived in Canada I would focus on our differences—like the way we say ‘sorry’—but ever since I have moved here almost everything about them feels like they come from the same place that I do…especially the people from the mid-west who speak with the same accent as us.

Traffic can mean many different things in Africa

In a place like Burundi, when you hear English it comes in many forms with many different accents.  For example, people who speak Kiswahili usually speak the Queen ’s English with a very strong accent.  Some of their vocabulary is different and their pronunciation is very poor (in my opinion of course), but their comprehension of the language is very strong.  People that have Kirundi as their mother tongue have a unique accent that actually is more easily understood to my ear.  Europeans vary in their accents, but their command of the language is most impressive.  With all of these differences in the way people speak English, when a white person walks up to you and starts speaking American English it is like something inside me relaxes.  I don’t have to fight to make myself known.  I can use the most obscure slang or reference pop culture off the cuff and they are right there with me.  It is like a breath of fresh air.  I can recognize American/Canadian English in 3 or 4 words because it stands out as being so different than anything else around here.  I’m sure my accent sounds so incredibly out of place here, but people say that Canadian accents are easier to understand because we pronounce all the consonants, unlike the Aussies or Brits.

This (the hat of) Paul Mosley, someone who we met online (sounds bad but its not) who has helped us out a lot with settling in. He works with MCC, so already we were cut from the same cloth

Prayer Requests:  For Danica’s courage and strength to hold.  The physical condition as an influence the emotional state and I think praying for the emotional state is important at this stage. For me, I am currently trying to plan how to implement Sunday school curriculum in my different churches up-country.  Pray that I would figure out a good way to empower the teachers to empower the kids.  Thanksgivings: 1)The boys have not been sick for a long time 2) Danica is back safe 3) Savings groups are growing at a very fast rate.  Thank you for your continued support and prayers!