May 19, 2011 – Languages and Larvae

It’s our first day in the village of Lassa Tchou and I’d better start writing down some words and phrases that I’m learning before I forget them:

Labale – Thank you
Payan swe – What is your name?
Payan se – My name is
Punuh – goat
Pono – bread (easily confused with “punuh,” but guaranteed to draw laughs when Caroline, unaware of the difference between the words, leans down and looks at a goat and yells “pono!”)

Those are just the Kabiye words and phrases I remember learning today, but there were quite a few more. They have their own alphabet so of course all of those phrases are just based on phonetics. As is my French, which we’re also learning a lot of!

Comment vous apell et vous? – What is your name?
Bon soir – Good afternoon
Bon jour – Good morning
Bon nuit – Good night
Adieu – Goodbye (but careful, you only say adieu to someone who is dying. Which I learned after saying it to the local pharmacist. Whoops.)
Du rien – You’re welcome
Poisson – fish
Moto – motorcycle (the chief mode of transportation here in Togo. Seriously, there are more motorcycles here than I’ve ever seen in my life. Haha it makes me want one so bad!)
Panye – the fabric all the women use as skirts. They just wrap them around themselves or use them to tie their babies to their backs. It’s pretty ingenious, honestly.

I’ll try to keep a running list of new words I’m learning so I can remember and practice them more.

Folks, in other news, there is something seriously wrong with my right eye. It feels like there’s a speck of something stuck in it and it’s stinging like crazy. It’s really red and irritated and I keep sobbing and snotting out of the right side of my face. No bueno. Other health issues have come up too. Last night my half a meatball sub threw my vegetarian stomach through the ringer. I spent some time in the bathroom for sure. And Lydia did this morning too after drinking some coffee. And the worst one by far is Dusty’s back. He laid on a bad mattress in Uganda and got his back all pricked and then rafted the Nile the next day and now he has botfly larvae growing in his back. Seriously, they’re disgusting, and Cecily is having to pull them all out. But he has worms living and growing in his back and if he doesn’t get them out they’ll grow to maturity and crawl out of their holes as full-grown flies eventually. Is that not the grossest thing EVER? But other than that, I think everyone has stayed pretty healthy, praise God!

Today in Lassa Tchou was an awesome first day! We got to introduce ourselves to the women and they introduced themselves to us and we gave them their shirts and took their pictures. Then we took a tour of the village. It’s really cool! As we were walking around and seeing things we got to learn so much about their culture. We saw where and how they live and they taught us different words and phrases and even though we didn’t speak the language we could still communicate in a way. That is so amazing for me to see how something that was a main concern for me could just be put to rest so quickly. I mean of course it’s still an obstacle, as we saw in the market when we tried to haggle for panyes, but the women in Lassa Tchou it seems like just understand that we’re there to love them and they love us back for it. That might sound kind of hippie and naïve, but that’s really the sense I get. It doesn’t matter that we can’t speak Kabiye, we can still learn a lot from one another.

Besides, they see that we’re trying to learn. And it has been SO much fun for me to learn both of these languages today! I was seriously thrilled to learn from the women and from Esowe (our translator). I’m so glad that they’re patient and understand how much we want to be able to communicate. And learning these different languages is so much different than learning Spanish…it’s easier for me to understand French when I already know Spanish, but it’s still tough. I think I feel like I’m capable of mastering French while I’m here, as ridiculous and unrealistic as that is, whereas when I’m speaking Spanish I feel like I’ll never reach fluency. I don’t even know why that is, but I wish I were as confident in my Spanish as I am right now in my pretty much nonexistent French. Maybe this trip will teach me confidence in languages. I like the idea of being trilingual :)

May 18, 2011 -- Lome, Togo

I think this is going to be a fun group. It already is! I'm looking forward to spending the summer with them. Haha hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but I think God has put a great team of people together.

Can I tell you how grateful and happy I am to not be sweating right now? Haha it's been perpetual since I stepped off the plane in Ghana, but right now we're on our way to Kara, Togo and we're on a bus run by the post office and it has this perfect air conditioning. It's absolutely wonderful, I don't remember ever being this grateful for air conditioning!

Yesterday afternoon when we got to Late and Minah's house (they were housing us last night in Lome, the capital of Togo, before we left today) we were relaxing (and eating some of the most delicious pineapple and juiciest mangos ever) and we started talking about Lifebread and what the whole concept is behind the ministry. It was surprising how little we all knew about the ministry we're paying big bucks to work with and promote. So it was really helpful to sit down and get a better sense of what we're doing here. The thing that really stood out to me was the intent of the Lifebread ministry to become obsolete. From a leadership perspective, I mean. The goal is that the people who participate in the projects in the community would take them over and that these wouldn't remain "American-run" projects. And that's really what's happening, which is super exciting! Like at the bakery project in Uganda, the people there are taking the oven project concept and starting another one somewhere else. That's exactly what Christian missions looks like ideally, at least in my eyes. It's all about sharing ideas and resources and empowering people. Giving them more freedom in all areas of their lives, breaking down socioeconomic barriers, and of course sharing the gospel that brings more freedom than any project or idea we could ever share with someone. I love it!

Yesterday all the interns finally got to meet each other! I made it to the airport against all odds and met up with Dusty and Cecily and the rest of the interns and went to the guest house we stayed at last night. The five of us (me, Dylan, Lydia, Cameron, and Caroline) stayed up last night and talked and got to know each other for a little while. Not that I can determine what will happen over the next ten weeks, but I have a good feeling about our group :)

Last night we had our first "team meeting" and I feel way more prepared and informed. Which is really helpful. One thing Mark (the missionary in Togo who picked us up in Accra and is helping us get back to Togo) really hit hard on was building personal relationships with the people we're working with, and that it's really important for them to remember you after you leave. Ask them about their families and get to know their lives. I don't know how to do that with the language difference. I'm honestly probably the most concerned about that and about my Bible and nutrition lessons. Even after tonight I still have no idea what I'm doing with those. I have no teaching experience and no idea what their culture is. I'm pretty much still at a loss there.

May 15, 2011 -- Let's go!

I am so excited to finally meet everyone today! Don't get me wrong, I've loved the beach and it's been relaxing and fun (and definitely entertaining, there are legit Rastas everywhere!), but vacations just aren't as fun when you don't have someone to share them with. I'm ready to see people I know and talk to friends and start this internship officially! Even if it's a huge challenge, at least we'll all be hating it together lol. Next step: get myself to the airport and cross my fingers that nobody's flights got delayed or cancelled!

May 14, 2011 -- Accra, Ghana

I swear, the guy I met at the airport was literally an angel. I have no idea what I would have done if I hadn't met him. I flew into Accra by myself two days before the rest of the group because that's part of the joys of flying standby. I knew I was going to a guest house on the beach, but I had no idea how to get myself there. Walking out to where the taxis are I just happened to run into this guy who just happened to be a global risk manager for a company who invests billions of dollars in gold mines in Ghana and he got a guy to take me to the beach. I'm not even joking, he was an angel and an answer to all the prayers I had been praying.

Call me crazy, but I'm still not super comfortable here by myself. I'm starting to loosen up though. I felt a definite sense of peace on the way from the airport, like everything is going to be absolutely fine. Other people have been way more lost and confused than I am right now, guaranteed. And seriously, this guest house is like the least shady place I could be. I don't feel like it's unsafe at all, so I'm starting to relax.

As far as Ghana goes, one of the first things I noticed is that the sky is HUGE! It's wider than the sky I've seen anywhere else. Maybe because there are no tall buildings and a pretty flat terrain? It smells like Honduras lol, like diesel smoke. But there's also something different, I'm not sure what it is...I guess just Africa :) And the people here are ridiculously friendly! My automatic standoffish shield that I put up when I'm uncomfortable just doesn't fly here. Let's see...people carry EVERYTHING on their heads, it's insane. It's like a genetic Ghanaian predisposition to having a flat head or something. I can't balance anything anywhere on my body, so I'm pretty sure I would totally fail here. OK well that's my crash course on what Ghana has been so far. I'm not hating it! And of course I'm never one to turn down a beach vacation :)

Happy today

The end of the year coming around and things really starting to wind down always makes me realize how fast time flies. Last night at our Admissions Office student worker party all of the seniors were saying what they’re doing when they graduate and telling their favorite office memory and I felt like I was back in high school, saying goodbye to the seniors. That doesn’t feel like it was 3 years ago, it feels like it was yesterday. And I know that next year won’t be any different. Seriously, time flies, and they say it never slows down. Which means I don’t need to wish it by and make it go any faster than it’s already going. So when you ask me if I’m excited for this summer, that’s a tough question to answer. I think I know in my head that this summer is going to be fantastic: I’m going to be traveling the country and the world with people who I already know are amazing and meeting even more amazing people everywhere I go, I’ll be teaching people how to live lives that are healthier in body and in spirit, I’ll experience so many things I don’t expect and encounter God in ways I can’t anticipate because that’s just how God works, and I know that overall I’m in for an incredible journey and adventure. But as far as being excited about it, honestly I’m not. I have a little while before I leave, 18 or 19 days I guess, and I plan to enjoy every single one of those days for what it is. Not to turn this into a cliché, but if I spend all of my time looking forward to the future how am I going to appreciate the days I have? So am I looking forward to this summer? Not really. I’m just happy today.

Honduras and post-Honduras lessons

1. I did NOT miss my cell phone.

2. There may be people out there who have gone to foreign countries and gotten lost and never been found. I am not one of them. Although I thought for a minute I might be...

3. ...and will therefore never go for a run in Honduras again.

4. Eating too much Mexican food results in the feeling of a brick in your stomach. I would not recommend it.

5. I kind of miss chicken.

6. Beans-in-a-bag are, in fact, vegetarian, contrary to popular belief.

7. More confirmed than learned, but kids are really just not my thing.

8. I'm getting old and becoming completely worthless when I get tired.

9. That being said, it's totally OK to go to sleep at 10:30 pm.

10. I will NOT compete for anyone's attention. I repeat, I will NOT compete for ANYONE'S attention.

11. Qualities I appreciate in people: honesty, laughs a lot!, cares about what's on my mind (even if it's nothing), doesn't care that I'm totally uncool about 90% of the time.

12. Qualities I do not appreciate in people: flakiness, name-dropping, insincerity, expectations that I can interpret subliminal messages.

13. I'm not sure I could spend a year alone in another country. If that's what God asks me to do, I'll do it with His strength. But I definitely can't do it on my strength alone.

14. Sometimes people turn out to be completely different than you expected them to be. And it's awesome.

15. Sometimes people turn out to be completely different than you expected them to be. And it sucks. But it's OK. Really, really OK.