Young Adults In Global Mission

Transcription

1 Young Adults In Global Mission About January, 2017 So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today s trouble is enough for today. -Matthew 6:34 A ñaaya? Iiyo. A paax? A paax. This greeting means: It s going? Yeah. Well? Well. Contents: - Christmas - English Class - Fifty Times! - Volleying in Seereer - Friend of the month - Some more viewable pictures Christmas Ok, so I ll tell you what happened on Christmas, because maybe you are curious. My host family went and stayed in my host dad s home village, Mbettite. It reminded me of going to my dad s old house in New Mexico for Christmas. Same playing with cousins and Grandma and aunts and uncles. We went to a midnight Christmas Eve mass, came home and slept. On Christmas, we had church in the morning, came home and cooked. As we cooked, people from the neighborhood brought us giant platters of food from their houses (food is Christmas presents). Men of the village came wandering from house to house to eat food, say hi, and head to the next house and eat there. I got to eat couscous, grilled marinated meat, pasta (I had been wanting pasta SO much, too!), veggies, etc. We sat and talked, some of the teen boys made sweet green tea and passed some to each person, everyone got a soda, etc. It was wonderful. We chatted as the sun went down. My host sisters and I got ready to go out. When we were all ready, my oldest host sister Hélène led us around from house to house, where we d say hi and chat a bit and get offered more food. We got back home around 10pm, and were sitting on the floor helping my host mom crack open peanuts she had gotten from a neighbor. My eyes were getting real heavy when Mane came in with a bowl of couscous for us to eat dinner with. We gathered around the bowl, and Mane proceeded to pour out for us each some cold goat intestines/stomach that had been well-cooked. Mane put some in my portion, and I tried to sneakily move it back to the center. Kindly, Mane took the bit of stomach I didn t want to eat and broke it into smaller pieces for me. nooo said my mind. But I ate it, and it was ok. Oh, silly Mossane. After that, I was very tired, and Hélène and Mane asked if I was coming with them to the big town Christmas dance. I so wanted to get the full experience, but I was just out of energy. They put down a mattress & blanket for me, I slunked into my pj s, and went to bed. When I woke at 7am, I heard the sound of the drums still playing (But Mane & Hélène were asleep in our room). English Class Since the last newsletter, we ve consistently had English class at the Lutheran center. I teach adults of the church who want to learn English or improve the English they already have. Teaching adults has been a switch for me from teaching 5 th graders, but some things are universal: faces lighting up when learning something new or getting praise after trying their best, everyone wanting a lesson that is relatable, and everyone enjoying cute supplementary cartoon music videos. Let me just say, it is way easier to teach English with all the different resources I can pull from online. I think of the teachers teaching Seereer at the preschools around here, and that seems like a lot more work

2 and self-production of materials. It just shows some of the privilege that I have in my teaching (And that I get to come over from a different continent, teach my native language to people who want to learn it because they can use it! What?!). What power in the past has done to bring us to now. It is interesting. I ve been noticing my privileges more and more while I ve been here. And the privileges I have don t really come from who I am, but where & what family I was born into. That s humbling, isn t it? Fifty Times! This one is a fun story. Was walking home from the Women s Center late one-day because I had stayed to help serve lunch for a meeting, so I was alone. A little more vulnerable for people to call out to me. At one of my road-crossings, I saw a maybe 12-year-old boy walking home from school on the other side of the road. I expected this to go any of the following ways: 1. He yells, Toubab!! Booonjouuuur! 2. He is scared of me and looks down. 3. He asks me my name and has a conversation with me. 4. He just keeps walking home. This is how it actually went: Him: On a passer cinquante fois. Me: Cinquante fois? Him: Oui! What he said: We have passed each other fifty times! Me: fifty times? Him: Yes! That was a new one. Volleying in Seereer This is one of the things I am excited about. January is the month where I first was able to volley back in Seereer. I m not the sportiest, so I get real excited when I can volley back to someone in volleyball or ping pong. It s the same with words. Response time too slow and the other player gets frustrated or loses interest. Response non-existent and it s the same deal. Or they ask you if you re OK. Lemme just say, these examples of volleying may sound small, but they felt awesome when they happened. One night I was sitting and talking with big Pascal. He can speak English and French too, but he started off with me in Seereer. (Very kind of him, because I can be hit or miss) P: Mossane, mam guitar le wo? (Mossane, where s your guitar?) M: No ndok ale mi (In my room) P (w/ a little smile): Kaa daana? (Is it sleeping?) M: Iiyo, a paax (Yeah, it s sleeping well) P: Ndax kaa xilaa? (Is it snoring?) M: Ondik rek (Just a little bit) Pierre, who is sitting nearby: chuckle, chuckle My mind: YESSSSSSSSSSS. Then at the Women s center, in teinture class (Sometimes I wake up later and have to eat my morning bread at school so I ll be on time.): My teacher, whole class listening: Mossane a buga ñaam mburu det! (Mossane always wants to eat bread!) Me: Layaa ndigil (You re tellin the truth) Class: hahaha Mossane waay! (Haha soo Mossane) Someone told me, You know, [YAGM] is going to be hard for you. You rely on your humor. It s going to take you a while to be funny in another language. I still have a long way to go to be really competent, but these were times that I could feel the wheels churning. Friend of the month: Cécile Honestly, let s say friend of the whole time I ve been here. Really hard to describe this friend o mine in one paragraph, but I ll try. Cécile is my 10- year-old (as of January 7 th!) host sister. When I was leaving for Senegal, I asked my mom a little tearyeyed, But who will I make up songs with? No one likes making up silly songs like you and me. Well, a silly person is here and her name is Cécile. Cécile cracked me out of my shell. She enjoys helping me with stuff. She also enjoys eating my Skittles and pushing me to my limit. She has seen me happy, sad, angry, silly, etc. and stayed my friend. She watched The Sound of Music in French with me. She interrupted my shower to give me a pumice stone to clean my feet & had me stick them out to see if I did a good enough job. She pulled out the drawer of trash that I was saving to make into musical instruments and actually helped me make some of the proposed instruments. We color together. She loves being creative, being helpful, being sassy, being silly, being serious, etc. And sometimes we make up songs. p.s. Since our last correspondence, I have gotten to have my biological family visit, which was awesome. My favorite part was being with them, but I also especially enjoyed showing them where I live and having them meet the people I see daily over here in Fatick. Will include that in the end-pictures.

3 One of my favorite pictures of Cécile Chatting as the sun goes down on Christmas. Two men on the left are drinking the aforementioned green tea, called waraga in Seereer (Ataaya in Wolof). The man in the orange shirt is my host dad, Latyr. Latyr is also the intern pastor in Mbettite.

4 Four fabrics I dyed in teinture class this January! Thanks again, Madame Dieng! Two very common lunches. Left: Yassa, Right: Ceebu Jen/Maalo fo Lip

5 My family! Here we are in Mbettite, ready to eat around the bowl! First time for the fam! L R: Me, Heidi, Stephen, Mom/Cindy, Dad/Paul That s some good eats! Happy holidays! (This was a few days after Christmas) L R: Host sister Hélène (home from University for the holidays), Host dad Latyr, me, Heidi It was so nice to have both families together, eating delicious food. My mouth is watering again looking at this pic.