A lot to talk about...Kinda...

I haven't posted in a couple of days...as I am sure you have noticed. Not to much has really happened in the past couple of days. We have all had Kiswahili lessons all day long, which has been interesting. Because I am slow on the uptake I didn't figure out the teaching strategy that they use until today. They are slowly building our conversational skills, not just our vocabulary with random grammar rules like what we are taught in the average language class back at home. We have learned greetings, introductions, countries of origin, work and school. This is all typical stuff you say right away in a conversation. They are sneaky...alright maybe not, but I am surprisingly retaining most of what I learn. Fantastic.

Let's see...yesterday Tim and I went to the Wednesday night communion service, which was in English. We were told that other language students would be there as well. This was definitely not the case, because Tim and I were the only people there from the language school as the seats were quickly becoming filled with secondary students. It was a great time nonetheless. It was interesting hearing everyone try to sing what a friend we have in Jesus. It reminded me what it is like whenever a typical mid-west choir tries to sing African songs... butchered. I liked it none the less. The interesting thing about the music was the fact that the pastor would say "form (kinda like grade, only different) 5 sing first then form 6, etc." and they would all just sing. These secondary school students just radiated music. There is nothing quite like listening to people sing in Africa. Everyone can sing and everyone has every song memorized. Just amazing.

Moving on, I think the four of us are feeling a tinge of homesickness. It's the simplest of things that we find so valuable. I found out that I have the first and second season of the Office on my computer (thanks Cheeks) so we have been watching the occasional episode every now and again. It's just a nice way to go home in our minds for 20 minute segments. None of us regret coming here by any means, but since we have become fairly close to each other, when one of feels a little blue, so do the rest of us. I think it is settling in that we are going to really be here for three months without solid, voice to voice, face to face communication with our families and friends. We are starting to face the music and I think perhaps it is a little unnerving.

On a happier note, we are starting to make friends with some of the language teachers that are our age and also some of the other students our age. These next three months are going to yield some very interesting friendships. Especially with the teachers, both sides teaching each other their countries slang. By the end of our stay we are going to have three languages learned. Kiswahili, Swahili slang, and a new hybrid of Swanglish (a mixture of english and swahili slangs). Should be good.

One final note. I have posted links to Tim's and Steve's blog. Check them out, it all may be a little redundant but it's nice to have different points of view on the same subjects.

Peace,
PHW