Bird's Eye View

“Jamiila?” he says “Na’am” I respond There are many laughs all around. “Jamiila?” he says again “Na’am” I say again... He’s just calling my name so that I will respond in his language. And it’s apparently very amusing to them. I’m called Jamiila because my real name is too difficult for them to say. (Jamiila means beautiful btw) I’ve been told that I say Na’am very well for a foreigner. Most other people will call my name, and after I respond, they’ll continue with the question or statement then one of the miss.es will translate for me, and we’ll have a conversation. But this dude didn’t care for all of that. He just wanted to hear my voice. He also wanted to make me his third wife. He gave us a sheep today. Hope he doesn’t consider that a dowry. We tied the thing on top of our van for the drive home. I gave him water when we arrived, and patted his head. He’s very tame for a sheep. We’ll eat him tomorrow for dinner. VM (22.01.10)

This week gone was quite eventful. Sunday at church was an awesome start! Never mind the language barrier. The ‘praise team’ had a different dance/jig for each song. The instruments were made, not bought. The drum set, for example, is set up like a regular drum set home, but it’s goat skin they use with metal drums (steel pan material). The cymbal was a flat piece of metal with glass bottle covers wired to it. And the sermon was in 3 languages! We’re backward in the west, bout we only know one language. Or I am. Went to the bush twice, to see two different families. It was amazing. We got to have vet meetings where we discussed different animal diseases they were experiencing. It’s my job to now figure out what the illnesses are and to come up with possible solutions. Imagine someone explaining that their animal makes a sound (then imitates the sound) and does like this (then imitates the action). Quite a hill to climb, but I’m gonna try my best. I did get some good info to work wit...