Thursday, February 19, 2015




 
2-18-15

Another week and another update, the work here goes well. Still more men than previously are attending the English classes and I at times seem to need to be learning Arabic as well as Somali! In the language that I am learning there are no “P” sounds. That may not seem to be too odd, but I am also teaching beginners English and the “P” is incredibly difficult, especially the differentiation of “P, b, & t”. Of course the difficulty is returned during my language studies when I try to make rolled “R’s” and hard “Q’s” and “X’s”. It, the language learning, is a re training of the mind as well as a refiguring of the speech muscles.

We have been going out into the community and visiting or talking more in the last two weeks than before, our supervisors just had their third child, and we have been having a loose schedule and riding to and from the English center with the girl team. Last week we got to walk down and around eighth and ninth streets in Mayfair as well as to hang out in the barber shop where our language teacher works. Getting to hang out in a Somali barber shop was an interesting experience, and I made sure as we left to let our teacher know that this week I would be coming back for a trim.

On Saturday we got up and hoofed it back down to Mayfair to gather up some of the men, we were going to a king Tut museum exhibit and using the tour as English practice, as well as a time for hare into lives.  The exhibit was pretty awesome, in that we could see all of the futility that was exercised in hopes of getting a person to heaven through the gathering of stuff. For history and culture the experience was amazing, but it was also spiritually saddening to see where people had been putting their hopes and dreams. Once we were done with the museum tour we headed back to drop the men back off for their afternoon prayers, but the electric had been shut off to a large sector of the town so a 30-45 min drive took us 2 hours of quality talking time! (My “singles awareness day” was spent talking to and building relationships with men and sharing my walk with them. And I think that it made for a great day.)

 Monday we left the classroom after our lessons were over and headed to the barber shop on a mission. That mission was for me to get a haircut in the Somali barbershop. Once there we saw men that we recognized from the classes and the previous week. The haircut wen well and there was more attention to detail than you usually get in a shop back home. When it came time to trim around the beard and neck… he, the barber, couldn’t find a working set of fine trimmers. So the option was given for a straight shave…my first real straight shave. It took to me what seemed a lifetime to make the decision, weighing the options of Sweeny Todd in my mind or to trust this young man with my life. In the end (like 2 seconds later) I agreed and the process began! The trim and the shave were both superb, no nicks or slits, and he even used the straight razor to make the lines of my beard and moustache much more professional looking, I am happy.

Our barber/language teacher has only been cutting hair for 8 months.

We stopped at the little Somali coffee shop on the way back to the classroom, to talk a bit more and because we had seen our teachers brother there eating watermelon and chilling for a bit. The brother is one of several and is now my official tailor, or at least that is what he told me. Last week I took a pair of trousers that had ripped from the button to the knees while in the village outside of Gaborone, and he repaired these trousers so well that you cannot even tell that they were ever ripped. It is amazing to be able to talk to these young men and be at ease around them, the shave went a long way towards easing the conversations!

  I am finding that the hospitality of those who are struggling to live and provide for themselves, towards others, is astounding. Every day that we go out and talk to people, usually an excuse is found to treat us in some way or form. The haircut and shave were free, as was the tailoring job, and seemingly always the tea is as well. We are going to need to return the hospitality as much as possible whenever we see an opportunity! So far I have noticed that to the people the relationship is more important that the buying of a product. Of course this means relationships formed outside of a market sense…if you walk into a shop the buying of products is the important thing, but if you see a student or friend in a shop, the practice in English is an excuse to sit and share tea while talking about life.    

After our language lessons when the opportunity arises we have been sharing as much as we can with our teacher. We tell him about how and why we live our lives the way we do and why we follow our beliefs; and he tells us about his life, upbringing, and beliefs/practices as well. So far there have been many discussions and some tricky things to talk about but we are definantly going to continue building our relationship through language.

This week and recent time has gone well, I ask for your intercession on behalf of the work that we are doing here, and for a larger room (upper room) to be provided for language. Currently there is not enough room to be able to effectively spend time talking to the respective classes without having to be herd over the other groups. I also am Pr@ying for opportunities to arise in which sharing my heart with others would be appropriate and well received. Team dynamics are going well, and now there is a new 5+ lb. addition to the team also. Open our eyes, ears, and hearts to the lost.

Thank you from taking time from your schedule to read this update, and I hope that you keep our team in your hearts as well as thoughts.

Ethan.

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