This week Hands at Work is having its Africa Conference here at ASM. The project directors from all over Africa are here with us. It has been great to meet all of these faithful ones who are really on the front lines of serving (day after day, year after year!). The week has been filled with brainstorming and vision planning for Hands at Work and strategizing as to how the organization can effectively care for 100,000 orphans by 2010. Not an easy task. None of this has any easy answers. It has really showed me the immensity of the problems here and depth of what needs to be done and the complexity of doing it!
As is expected when there are many different cultures together there will be some good laughs with cultural misunderstandings.
One evening when we were singing praise and worship being led by a Nigerian man we had quite a misunderstanding. Most African songs are simple, short phrases repeated over and over. We all joyously sang this song, “Lord, lift me higher (sounding like “higha”), lift me higha…” As we repeated the verses he would shout out the phrase for the next verse and repeat that one for a while. Well…when he shouted out one verse, there was an immediate muffled chuckle when all of us (who don’t speak Nigerian English) heard him say, “Lord, give me sausage!” It took some time before our minds translated the phrase and we realized that we were not actual asking for sausage but for success! We have been laughing about sausage all week!
Next, (this is just the start of our first Mozambiquen Portugese misunderstanding I am afraid) a group of us were sitting visiting with the 2 men from Mozambique. Laura asked Carlos what the biggest challenge he faces in Mozambique is. Then she added a second question and said, “what is the word for challenge in Portuguese?” To Laura’s ears she heard Carlos respond “Dares a few (there’s a few with a Mozambiquen accent)”. So Laura responded, “Oh, I just need to hear one.” Then again Carlos says, “Dares a few.” Laura was still confused and she asked again- “Oh, no, I just need to hear 1 of the challenges.” Finally the rest of use realized what was going on and clarified to her that the word for challenges in Portuguese is desafio, sounding like “dares a few.” Oh, we all laughed!
My embarrassing language stories are to come! I am surely no natural at speaking anything but English so continued prayers that I can learn to communicate in Portuguese are very welcomed! Also, I have now learned that at the hospital we will work at 1 day/week there is no English spoken and a few of the doctors speak French! Oh, Mom, I pray your French education genes step up and help me out!
It’s been a great week and the time is going quickly. About a month from now I will be packing my bags and Laura and I will be heading off to Mozambique. After meeting and talking with Carlos and Santos we are very excited to go be part of Rubatano Home-based care near Chimoio, Mozambique.
4 comments:
Should I start to learn Portugese? Ha!
That is too funny, and so great of God to bring in the smiles!! The good thing is though, that these new words you have now learned, will not be forgotten!!
Just love getting to hear how you are doing!!!
Keeping you and Hands at Work in my prayers.
Love,
Denise
Denise
Hey Dara - glad to hear the stories as always. On Friday I was showing my Somali friend - Mustafa - your blog. (He didn't under stand the concept of blogging, so I had to show him some things, which is why i sent you that other message some time ago. Any way, this friend of mine is always hinting at how a good Christian "like me" (he doesn't know me that well) should go to africa. "In America, you no one wants help, they just want drugs; but in Africa, if you help someone you save their life - makes you feel very good." - he's quite funny and has an amazing grasp of global politics. He's also always hinting at how I can make lots of money - there are man suggestions for this. Anyway, we talk about africa sometimes and I showed him your blog. And he said, "She (you) is on an internship, yes?" Me: "No - she chooses to do this to help others." Mustafa: "OH! (very surprised and excited). She is a very nice person!" - I agreed, and then he said, "She is older than you, right?" I said, "No she's younger." - "If she is younger, then you should mary her." - "Um...w...what?" - that turned into an interesting conversation about our different cultures. Other things were said that was...um, well, interesting. Anyway, i thought you wuld laugh.
On a ligheter note - the worship practices are also interesting.
By the way - Desmond Tutu is speaking in minneapolis on Saturday (if I remember the date correctly)...tell your friends. He'll also be on a panel discussion with, amoung others, the dali lama next tuesday (http://www.seedsofcompassion.net/involved/interreligious_day.asp) - which should be quite intersting. I think the panel will be accessable on-line.
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