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Pole
Pole
“Pole pole” is my favorite Swahili
response to the often asked question
“How are your language lessons going?”
Pole pole means slowly. Hopefully my
pronunciation and spelling of Swahili
has improved during my 17-lesson crash
course in Swahili. (I misspelled safari
njema in my first letter.) I still
disagree with everyone who insists
Swahili is an easy language. Any
language, having seven classes of nouns
which all have different rules to agree
with locatives, demonstratives, and
adjectives, is not easy to learn. My
tutor is very pleased with my progress,
and I even got a “very good” on my last
homework assignment. My brain is full of
hundreds of Swahili words. Now God has
to move them from the back of my brain
to the tip of my tongue. I can talk
about household chores, the weather, and
tell time in Swahili which is no easy
task because their time is six hours
different than regular time. My American
brain first has to subtract six hours in
the morning or add six hours in the
afternoon and then convert the number to
Swahili. Most importantly I can talk all
about what I had to eat at the last
meal!
My home stay with a Kenyan family
went very well. I stayed with a doctor
and her three daughters who are in their
early twenties. They also had a cousin
visiting, so it was interesting sharing
a bathroom with five other ladies. I
discovered that they know more about
American culture than I do. The
daughters were all up to date on the
movies and music videos, and had the
television on all the time, including
during meals. I spent much of my time
pouring over my Swahili notes memorizing
words and grammar rules to prepare for
my daily oral quiz with my tutor. I
enjoyed taking study breaks in the
kitchen with the housekeeper, another
Esther. Esther gave me many impromptu
cooking lessons on Kenyan food, which
brings me back to my favorite topic. For
breakfast we often had tropical fruit
and bread and occasionally yellow sweet
potatoes and pumpkin! Lunch and supper
were always cooked meals, which were
often rice or ugali, cooked cabbage or
coleslaw, bean and vegetable stew, and
spinach or sukuma wiki which is kale. My
favorite things to make are chapati
which are similar to soft Mexican
tortillas, and mandazi which are Kenyan
donuts that taste more like funnel cake
without the extra sugar. (Chapati and
mandazi are plural words. To add an “s”
is an “Americanism”.) They kept telling
me how sweet mandazi were, but without
the extra sugar this American did not
think the mandazi were exceptionally
sweet. It’s like my bland American
tongue telling my East Indian friends
that a food is spicy. There is just no
comparison. I think I shocked their
taste buds when I made pancakes with
Kenyan made maple flavored sucrose syrup
for supper. I’m pretty sure they liked
my spaghetti better. You will have to
come visit me and taste for yourself
whether I passed my culture training and
can really cook Kenyan food. I must have
been an okay houseguest, because they
invited me back whenever I’m in Nairobi.
They also gave me a Kenyan nickname
“Chebaibai” which means “happy one.”
I came across a health hazard which I
hadn’t bargained for which is getting in
and out of one’s mosquito netting in the
dark. On one occasion I was too close to
the head of the bed and when I leaned
forward to get under the netting, I hit
the bedside table, thus giving myself a
small black eye. I have also been
dreaming about Swahili words which is a
side effect of my long hours studying,
not my malaria pills. Please continue to
pray for my health. I hope my stomach
adjusts to all the roughage in the
Kenyan diet.
At the beginning of my home stay I
heard a sermon on waiting for the Lord.
“Be still before the Lord and wait
patiently for Him.” (Psalm 37:7)
Studying is a very tedious chore for me,
and I have felt like I have been doing a
lot of waiting. This preparation has
been very important, but I am anxious to
begin working with the children. Please
pray that I will be able to effectively
use the Swahili I have learned, to
continue language learning with a tutor,
and to learn my responsibilities as a
physical therapist at the Children’s
Center. I leave for the Children’s
Center on February 17th.
Quote of the month to this mzungu:
(Mzungu is the Swahili word for white
person. The origin of the word means
traveler. My tutor explained that when
white people first came to East Africa,
the Africans didn’t realize there was
more than one white person. There were
reports about a white person being in
several locations, and they thought it
was one person who could travel
exceptionally quickly. After all, white
people all look the same, don’t we?) The
following was said to me by a pastor in
a church I visited in front of the whole
congregation: “If there are any more of
you that look like you, you invite them
to come next week too.”
Serving the
Great Physician,
Jenny Palmer
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| Many of you know by now
that near the end of January that I had
the privilege of traveling to Greece
with my boss, Pastor Dana Weller and two
other pastors, Pastor Ralph Soper of
Emmaus BFC and Pastor Cliff Boone of
Cedar Crest BFC, my home church. The
purpose of our trip was to visit the
Sioukiouroglou’s and the Kline’s, both
BFC missionaries in Greece. During our
visit to Corinth, on our day of
sightseeing, we visited one of many gift
shops in a touristy area. Pastor Weller
found several items for his friends and
family at home. During the tallying of
his purchases I noticed that the lady
had cheated herself by ten Euros (or
about $13). I turned to Pastor Weller
and said, sorry brother!” Then I pointed
out to the lady that she had
miscalculated. After thanking me, she
then asked us, “so you are brothers?”
Pastor Weller then explained that we
were brothers in Christ and that we were
Christians. I am not sure how I got in
the habit of addressing my Christian
brothers and sisters in this manner but
it is a habit that I like. At least in
this situation it created an opportunity
to share the Good News. I will make a
point to address my travel companions in
this manner on future trips in hopes the
question is asked again, and again, and
again ……………
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article at our Let’s Fish
weblog
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