Adjusting to life in the US . . .

I remember learning to read in English when I was in Grade 2. I could speak English by then, but, for some or other reason, I specifically remember having to get used to reading the th-sound.

Tonight, I was sitting on the couch reviewing multiplication tables with my 3rd-grade niece, Clara. She was saying her 7-time-table in Afrikaans, and it suddenly hit me that she should probably be saying it in English, since it would be better for her to be thinking in English when it comes to math and such. So I had her switch to her second language.

She's only been in the US for a little over a month, so it's been a huge adjustment to her, suddenly having to do everything in English. She's doing great, though. At times, however, you could tell how confused the poor child is getting with her numbers.

In Afrikaans, for example, forty two is "two and forty." Which could get terribly confusing when you're switching to times tables in another language. Poor kid! But at the same time, you can hear how her English is starting to affect her Afrikaans. In English, you say, "more than..." while in Afrikaans, than is translated as as (sort-of rhyming with us.) So she's starting to say things like "meer dan..." rather than "meer as..." It's got to be tough!

Three-year-old Anja, on the other hand, seems to be very quietly acquiring her second language. She's not speaking much in class, but this afternoon, I asked her a question in English, which led to an entire conversation in English. A month ago, she understood English, but hardly ever spoke it! I guess she's realized that people around her simply no longer understand when she tries to express herself in Afrikaans, so for survival, she's picking up English.

What's funny to me, though, is that whenever she doesn't know how to respond to a question, her standard answer is "nothing."

She'll catch on really quickly. No doubt. And she'll probably have the most American accent of all four people in their house.

Speaking of which: You know your accent is somehow different when no automated phone system understands what you're saying. For the most part, I'm able to adjust my accent enough that such systems understand me. My sister, on the other hand, has declared that she despises automated phone systems, since they simply don't understand her.

And we've been speaking English for much of our lives...

There are so many other things for them to get used to in the USA. They tried flavored coffee creamer tonight. Found it "very rich," while I, on the other hand, love the stuff in my coffee. French Vanilla's my favorite. I don't care for the fancy-flavored ones.

Plus I got them some cream cheese for their bagels, and my sister spread it thin like butter, asking first if you're supposed to put butter on first, or not. I guess if you're going to spread it so thin, you might as well put butter on first! But fear not, she didn't. And it's much better for your waist in any case not to put a quarter inch or more cream cheese on stuff...

Clara and I baked chocolate chunk cookies from scratch today and she declared that it's much nicer than the ready-in-the-tube kind. They tried those just for fun the other day. Since it's such a novelty. They really bake EVERYTHING from scratch in this house. Believe me. My brother-in-law is an incredible cook, as is my sister. But Stefan does stuff like bake bread (from scratch, yes, even making his own yeast from potatoes.) What really amazes me is that they're currently still mixing everything by hand since when you have to put up a house from scratch in another country, KitchenAids and hand mixers aren't on the top of the list...

Needless to say, while I was creaming the butter and sugar for the choc-chunk cookies today, I appreciated the fact that I don't usually have to do things like this by hand.

And later in the evening, I appreciated the fact that I never had to learn my times tables in more than one language...

Family

I've been having a wonderful time hanging out with my nieces. This is Anja. She's three, and thrilled that I'm here. As am I. Eight-year-old Clara's just as happy that I'm here. :)

If your phone, power and water all work at the same time...

... you're probaly not be in Ilula. A good friend used to say that of Malawi, where she was a missionary. It's more and more true of this neck of the woods.

We've had a lot of issues with water recently. I have to remember to turn on the water before getting soap on my hands. Or test the shower before getting ready to get clean. But even if you do so, often times, when you're halfway through a shower, the water would just stop. Just like that.

Similarly, we've been having a number of power outages recently. I am not sure how things work at home, but out here, the fuses in the huge transformers seem to blow every so often, as it did today. By the time I got to Ilula, power had been out all morning. Kenya Power didn't know of the problem. They came out to fix the fuse 5 hours later. I'm thankful indeed that they did come to fix it. As Westerners, we're pretty dependent on power. (I am, at least. My computer battery only lasts that long. And the stuff in your fridge gets bad after the power is off for some time.)

On a different note: Today, before I left Kipkaren to return to Ilula, I stopped by the school to take some pictures. A first-grader was crying really hard out on the playground. I went to check on her and found that little Viola had a terrible sore on her toe. Puss was oozing out... I was trying hard not to look grossed out by it. I could never be nurse! I did take her to the clinic, though, where they took good care of her.

Back in Ilula, I visited with the kids for a few hours this evening. Like they often do, the kids had a million questions about everything under the sun, from Osama to earthquakes! They also got to sing "Happy birthday" to my brother Henk. The kids were laughing hard at me speaking Afrikaans on the phone to him. Henk is 42 today. This is a photo of the mountains in the town where he and his family live. (This is where Henk works.) South Africa's been exceptionally cold recently. Places that rarely ever get snow, got snow.
So, happy birthday again, Henk. Hope you have a wonderful year!

On that note, I'm off to bed. Lots to get done in the office tomorrow.

At home with the Clarks

About six years ago, a quiet high school graduate walked into my office in Taiwan and with it, walked into my life. Jessie was an intern for the summer, and returned the next 2 summers. Her family lived in California, and when I was in LA for a Folio conference, I got to meet some of the Clark family. When APU offered me the opportunity to come and earn a master's degree the next year, Jessie's family offered me a place to stay. We thought it would be a part-time arrangement, me living in their garage-turned-into-a-bedroom. But we all decided that it was a good arrangement, so for two years, I was the GD/"garage dweller" at the Clarks'.

Tonight, I returned home to spend the week at their house while in SoCal for meetings at the ELI office. How very blessed I am to have such amazing friends in my world. As we sat around the dinner table tonight, telling stories and laughing, my heart was warm with love for this, yet another of my "adopted families."

I can say much about them and how they've blessed my life, but it's 1 am here, which means it's 3 back in Iowa... I'm tired. Time to sleep. I'm falling asleep to a worship song, "You are good." God is good, indeed!

Countdown

OK, so it didn't snow. Bummer! In fact, it's still pretty warm and cozy over here. Not balmy, but comfortable. As in, I rarely wear my coat and gloves.

I saw The Nativity with friends last night. Strangely, I wasn't too excited to go and see it, having read some not-so-good reviews about the movie. However, it was a wonderful movie! I was disappointed that Mary was played with so little feeling, but other than that, I cannot wait to get this movie on DVD and show it to the kids in Kenya! I know they may have questions about the birth scenes, but hey, it might just open the door for their parents to sit down and have a chat about the facts of life. :)

So it's two days till Christmas, and I'm blessed to be with friends to celebrate. I wish I could be in South Africa, with the rest of the family at my parents' home. They've been going to the beach and spending fun times with the grandkids. Some other year I'll be there again for Christmas. God willing.

Danette and I are off to go and buy a few things so we can have friends over for dinner on Christmas Eve. What a blessing to be close to good friends, to be able to go and see movies, hang out, laugh and simply relax.