And they loved him...

So I got through my three lessons this week. I don't think I have ever been so nervous as I was this week. I realized that I usually rely on interaction to help direct a session...well, with the language barrier interaction was very limited. But I must say the body language today was mush more encouraging than yesterday.

I taught on Marriage and Children... It was only as I sat to flesh out my thoughts that I realized how culturally grounded our ideas about marriage and children tend to be. And here I was from small town Canada trying to be relevant to villagers from farming communities. Argh!!! If I wasn't so sure that these were the things I should share I would have panicked and picked safer topics.

The blessing in the last two days was that the translator is a woman that I know fairly well. She is near my age and married with children. So she understood the things I was trying to share and was able to fill in details when she thought my words were unclear.

I realized that it's hard work to teach through a translator. It's difficult to keep your focus when you have to pause after each sentence. Both B and BG encouraged me to use the pauses to prepare my next thought. You might think this would be easy to do...well, it wasn't for me. On Thursday I found myself stopping and listening to the translator and then when it was my turn to talk I drew a blank Things worked much better today when I reminded myself that I didn't need to listen to her.

This is the time when my lack of language skills makes me feel inadequate. The most frustrating thing is that I generally know what is being talked about, but I can't formulate a coherent sentence. I can offer answers that are words strung together to form my thought, but my structure is very...free, shall we say? I peg myself as a toddler...high comprehension, low conversation ability.

But what I wanted to share when I started this post was that B shared tonight without a translator. He did a fantastic job. The team was so appreciative of his effort and affirming of his ability that is was a real encouraging time all around. It was great that he was able to share his story after one of the team members shared his. There were enough parallels to see that God works similarly all over the world.

B is out tonight playing music with some friends up at the top of the hill. He went from school, grabbed a cup of coffee and came to the training time, went back to school to take attendance for the school play, then he's off up to the top of the hill. So the girls and I watched...are you ready for this...TRADING SPACES. They each had a nice cup of hot chocolate with marshmellows(courtesy of my most recent visit home) and shared their opinions on the designs. It's so fun to hear their commentaries; they reveal so much about who they are...each one an individual.

...on an entirely different note I wanted to share my okra discovery. I don't know if many of you eat okra. If you are like me you probably had a bad okra experience and have stayed far away from it. My bad okra experience was with friends when we were at school in Minneapolis. They had cooked okra and fish together...it was really well cooked so that the okra was slippery. So imagine...fishy and slippery together...not very appealing. In fact I think my exact words were: "I have never tasted anything like it" as I quickly finished my serving with a smile.

But I now have a new way to eat okra that is a happy experience. First you was your okra to get any dirt off the outside...don't soak it, you are trying to avoid slippery okra. Then you chop it into pieces about 1cm wide...if you want to be fancy you could chop it on an angle. Then chop and onion...or two if they are small. Then heat up a frying pan... add a generous amount of oil. Thrown in the onions...then the okra...a bit of tumeric, salt and chilli...fry the whole mess until everything is nicely browned and serve hot with rice...add dal and yogurt to make a complete meal. YUM... By the way, do not add water or everything will get slippery.

I was going to download a pic for you all to see...but the cord for the camera seems to have gone for a walkabout. Things do that often around here, the usual suspect is P. She likes to pack up her bag or backpack and pretend to be going on a trip. These days she is often going to Canada with M.

Well, that concludes my Friday evening ramble...more soon...